Originally Posted by
N1120A
1) The UK (which your handle suggests) was expressly handles/wheels inclusive and the sizers were standardized by the airport operator as opposed to the airlines.
2) Sizers exist everywhere and are hopelessly inconsistent. The best sizers are probably those US Airways uses, which are open and have a grid.
Do you fly in Europe much? You seem to know a lot about the airports without seeing much of what's actually in them.
MAN has its own (mostly ignored) sizing bin for the security screen area. This was not standardised and agreed with the airlines. It's to do with the tray based system for bag scanning, which has a max bag/tray length of around 22". Around the check-in desks you will see sizing bins for each airline - they are different and inconsistent. Some airlines also have the bins at the gate.
There was a TV feature some time ago about the sizing bins being too small. TV journalist turned up with a box of the max size and it wouldn't fit the bmi baby bin.
Much of this is moot - check in online and sail through security in an efficient manner and you'll normally have no issues.