Carry-On and Checked Bags on GOL, LATAM and Azul

The one number ANAC sets, and the one it refuses to

ANAC, the Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil, writes the conditions of carriage for every ticket sold in Brazil. Two consecutive articles of Resolution 400/2016 do the job.

Article 14 is the floor: O transportador deverá permitir uma franquia mínima de 10 (dez) quilos de bagagem de mão por passageiro de acordo com as dimensões e a quantidade de peças definidas no contrato de transporte. A minimum free allowance of 10 kg of hand baggage per passenger, with dimensions and piece count left to the contract of carriage.

Article 13 does the reverse for the hold: O transporte de bagagem despachada configurará contrato acessório oferecido pelo transportador. Checked baggage is an accessory contract offered by the carrier — not a floor, a product.

The word franquia, allowance, appears exactly once in the whole resolution, in the hand-baggage article. ANAC repeats the point on its passenger page, updated 13 April 2026: airlines podem vender passagens com diferentes tipos de franquias de bagagem despachada ou até mesmo sem a franquia — with different checked allowances, or none. Article 44 gave it ninety days to take effect: the rule dates from March 2017.

What the rule does bind: disclosure

Article 5 lists what must be shown before payment, and item IV is regras e valores do transporte de bagagem — the comparison screen is the regulated document, not marketing. The same article covers connection times, which is why connecting through São Paulo and finding your terminal repay a read before booking, and customs is a separate rulebook again.

In the cabin: the same box, three different weights

Read the middle row twice. The overhead case is the identical box at all three, down to the centimetre — the one number ANAC never mentions. The weight, the one ANAC does floor, is where they disagree, and it moves: GOL publishes both of its figures, 10 kg for tickets issued before 13 October 2025, 12 kg from 14 October 2025. What counts toward those centimetres is not identical, though: GOL counts the wheels, LATAM and Azul count pockets and handles as well.

The cheapest ticket inside Brazil still carries a cabin bag

The fare with no cabin bag is real, just not a Brazilian domestic product.

GOL splits it by route on its hand-baggage page: in the domestic row of the fare table, Basic reads Tarifa indisponível para voos nacionais, unavailable on domestic flights. The fares page states the rest: A tarifa Basic inclui uma Bolsa ou Mochila até 10 kg. As demais tarifas, também incluem uma Mala pequena de até 12 kg. Inside Brazil the entry fare is Light, and Light includes the case.

LATAM splits its fare page by region, and in the block for flights inside Brazil the cheapest fare listed is Light: one 10 kg bag or backpack and one 12 kg mala pequena. Its price list agrees from the other end: for Brazil the case is Incluída em todas as passagens at every purchase window, gate included. Azul names no fare at all — its page opens with A bagagem de mão é aquela que viaja com você na cabine, sem custo adicional.

What the cabin cannot promise is space. LATAM publishes that when it runs out the case goes to the hold sem cobrança de taxa; Azul, that on a full flight it poderá ser despachada gratuitamente na porta da aeronave. Take the electronics out first: all three keep power banks out of the hold — Azul bars baterias de lítio soltas, LATAM baterias de lítio sobressalentes, GOL any portable electronic device — so the charger and the plug adapter stay with you.

The checked bag nobody is required to give you

Which fare includes one, as published on 24 September 2026. GOL's table covers seven fares without splitting by route: none with Basic or Light, the first bag with Classic, Flex and Premium Economy, two with either INSIGNIA Business fare. Only three of the seven are sold inside Brazil — the domestic row above rules out Basic, Premium Economy and both INSIGNIA fares — leaving Classic and Flex, or nothing. LATAM: none with Basic or Light, one with Standard, Full, Premium Economy Standard/Full and Premium Business Standard, two with Premium Business Full. Azul: one with Economy MaisAzul, two with Azul Super, three with Business.

Bought separately for a domestic flight more than 48 hours ahead, the first 23 kg bag is published at R$ 175 to R$ 219 by GOL, R$ 175 to R$ 220 by Azul and R$ 100 to R$ 200 by LATAM. At the airport GOL and Azul both publish R$ 250, under labels that differ: GOL's column reads No aeroporto, at the airport; Azul applies that R$ 250 no balcão ou no gate, at the counter or at the boarding gate.

Distrust those figures first — LATAM says so itself: above its Brazilian table sits a note that the reais amounts are referential, based on the exchange rate of 21 December 2021, US$ 1 = R$ 5.75. Before the desk, it helps to know how Brazilians pay, what a foreign card is charged and whether an instant transfer is open to you.

A bill would put the numbers back in the law, and it has not moved since November

Three lawful answers to one question is what the rule asks for; a bill would end that. On 28 October 2025 the Chamber of Deputies approved PL 5041/2025 and sent it to the Senate. It would amend the Brazilian Aeronautics Code to give every passenger a 12 kg overhead case plus a bag or backpack under the seat, under a flat rule — No transporte doméstico, os volumes de bagagem de mão deverão ser transportados gratuitamente. Free, gate-check included, plus one free 23 kg checked bag on flights operated in Brazilian territory.

It reached the Senate on 4 November 2025. Its status there, read from the Senate's database on September 24, 2026, is AGUARDANDO DESPACHO — awaiting referral — set on 5 November 2025, one entry in the file since.

Sources

• ANAC Resolution 400/2016, consolidated text — arts. 5 (IV), 13, 14 and 44. Accessed September 24, 2026.
• ANAC, passenger page on baggage — the 10 kg entitlement in plain language. Updated 13 April 2026; accessed September 24, 2026.
• GOL, hand baggage, checked baggage and fares. Accessed September 24, 2026.
• LATAM, cabin baggage, checked baggage, cabin baggage prices, checked baggage prices, restricted objects and fares. Accessed September 24, 2026.
• Azul, hand baggage and checked baggage. Accessed September 24, 2026.
• Chamber of Deputies, PL 5041/2025 and the text sent to the Senate. Accessed September 24, 2026.
• Senate, PL 5041/2025 case file. Accessed September 24, 2026.

What we could not verify

• Whether a 10 kg under-seat item alone satisfies article 14. On international routes GOL and LATAM sell a Basic fare whose only free cabin item is that 10 kg bag. It matches the floor by weight, but ANAC's page calls the personal item something airlines allow além dos 10 Kg da bagagem de mão, in addition to it. No ANAC text we found settles it.
• What an over-size cabin case costs at a Brazilian domestic gate. Gate prices are published, but for other things: Azul's R$ 250 buys a checked bag at the counter or the gate, and LATAM's Portão de embarque line prices a cabin case that fits. For one that does not fit, no figure — GOL publishes only that fees poderão ser aplicadas, may be applied; LATAM only uma taxa adicional no portão de embarque; Azul points to the checked-baggage table.
• Whether GOL's gate-check is free. GOL publishes that boarding groups 3, 4 and 5 may have to check the case at boarding, without saying there whether it is charged. LATAM and Azul state theirs is free.
• What the Senate will do with PL 5041/2025. No referral, no committee, no published schedule. Any date you read for it is a guess.
• How close the published bands are to the amount charged. All three publish ranges, and LATAM's are pegged to a 2021 rate. The figure to trust is on your booking screen — which also decides whether the ride into the city starts with a suitcase you did not expect.