Many people will come of a flight and when they get their Luggage from the under the plane cargo hold they will realize that their luggage is particularly cold.

Some of the issues that arise from this is people that have freezer sensitive materials in their baggage. On shorter haul flights, this is not so prevalent but this may be particularly common on long haul flights as the luggage will sit in the baggage compartment for a considerable amount of time.

The cabin where people sit on the aircraft is obviously temperature controlled for the comfort of the passengers on board. The air outside of the aircraft is obviously freezing at 30,000 feet and so the natural condition without weather control would be particularly cold. The air from the passenger cabin is passed through into the Luggage Hold so that there is some sort of control of temperature but in general the luggage hold will be very cold.

A Boeing 767 has a temperature of about 7 degrees Celsius in the luggage hold and similar temperatures would be on Airbus planes and bigger Boeing jets.

There are possibilities of getting temperature controlled baggage compartments where the temperature could be maintained at about 18 degrees Celsius. This would obviously be the case for luggage and cargo holds that are used for animals and pets.

By packing cold weather sensitive items in the middle of ones luggage, with clothes surrounding, a person could avoid possible damage that is caused by extremely cold under plane luggage holds.

Luggage holds are not however the biggest obstacle that baggage faces on the way to the aircraft. Heat and sometimes wet and snow conditions could sometimes effect bags that wait on the tarmac as they await transport to the plane.

Private jet travel circumvents this problem but still in all a person should be careful to pack items in a way that will not adversely effect them should such weather conditions come into play.

The post Why is my luggage from the aircraft so cold? appeared first on ElJet's Private Aviation Blog.