Denver Air Connection often checks your carry-on at the gate. You get it back at your destination, not the cabin. The airline says this plainly: its small aircraft do not have the cabin space a mainline jet has.
Anyone researching Denver Air Connection baggage allowance before a flight should start there. It changes how you pack more than any weight limit does.
Denver Air Connection is the scheduled passenger brand of Key Lime Air. Key Lime Air also runs charter and cargo flights. The two names cover different things.
Key Lime Air is the company, and Denver Air Connection is the ticket you buy. This page covers the Denver Air Connection baggage allowance that comes with that ticket.
Carry-on and personal item rules
The carrier allows one free carry-on bag up to 30 lbs or 50 linear inches. You also get one personal item under 41.5 linear inches, per the carrier’s own baggage policy page. Personal item space actually shrinks depending on which aircraft you draw.
A Metro 23 has a bin only 6 inches tall. The Dornier and the Embraer 145 allow up to 9 inches. Check your bag against a size checker before you assume it fits every plane in the fleet.
Cabin space is tight on these aircraft. Most carry-ons travel in the hold and get handed back planeside on arrival. Pack chargers, medication and snacks in your personal item instead, and most of the friction with this airline’s carry-on rules disappears.
Checked baggage limits
Checked bags can weigh up to 50 lbs and measure up to 62 linear inches. Anything over 75 lbs or 80 linear inches is refused outright, not just charged extra. Passengers may check up to three bags, though the third depends on available space.
Baggage fees
Standard routes charge $20 for a first bag, $25 for a second and $30 for a third. Telluride routes cost more: $25, $40 and $105.
Overweight bags run $20 to $55. Oversize bags add $35, or $55 into Telluride. These fees stack on top of the base checked bag charge rather than replacing it.
Run the numbers with the site’s baggage cost tool before you reach the counter.
Connecting and interline baggage
Through checking to a final destination works only in one case. The Denver Air Connection segment must be booked in the same reservation as a connecting flight on United, American or Delta.
Book the legs separately and you claim your bag at the connection point. You then recheck it yourself. International through checking is not available at all, because of alliance restrictions the airline does not set on its own.
If your itinerary crosses a border, plan on collecting checked bags and clearing security again at the connecting airport.
What the community actually reports
Independent forum discussion of this carrier is thin. It runs a small regional network out of Denver, not the kind of routes that generate heavy traveler chatter.
The one point that does surface matches the airline’s own disclosure. Travelers used to stowing a roller bag overhead on a mainline flight do not always expect it to leave their hands at the jet bridge on a 19 or 30 seat aircraft.
Build that expectation into your packing plan rather than discovering it at boarding.
How this compares to other small carriers
Denver Air Connection’s fee structure sits close to other regional operators that fly under their own brand rather than a mainline one, such as Cape Air. Both charge modest flat fees per bag instead of the tiered pricing common on major airlines. Both also check most carry-ons at the gate more often than not.
If your itinerary also includes a mainline segment, check that carrier’s checked baggage rules separately. The Denver Air Connection baggage allowance only governs its own leg unless the through checking conditions above are met.
For the cargo and charter side of the business, rather than the passenger ticket, see the separate Key Lime Air page.
The bottom line
Pack essentials in a personal item small enough for the tightest aircraft in the fleet. Expect your carry-on to travel in the hold, and keep checked bags under 50 lbs and 62 linear inches to dodge the higher fees.
Book connections on the same reservation with United, American or Delta if you want a checked bag to follow you automatically. Everything else about the Denver Air Connection baggage allowance follows from those habits.
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