This site shows that 40 lbs is the median and AF is the lowest at 26 lbs. EK's 7 kg rule comes to 15 lbs. It therefore seems EK is less than half the normal weight, and the "one item" makes matters more difficult. That point aside, I've never seen an airline that weighs carry on bags which are obviously smaller than the allowable size, so it seems EK is an outlier based on the "one bag only" rule, based on the weight rule, and based on the ruthless enforcement of those rules which is selectively applied based on departure airport.

https://www.luggageonline.com/travel...d-restrictions

This site has a bit more data and seems to suggest that limits are lower in Africa/Middle East than Americas/Europe, on average, and that Asia has a lot of variability.

I think enforcement is the key comparative point, though, because I've flown on many of these global airlines with my standard carry-on configuration and have never once had my hand baggage weighed. So, in practice, in my experience, EK is alone in actually weighing each bag and enforcing the most restrictive limits in the industry. From this list, I noticed only two airlines with a smaller limit than EK.

http://flyingwithfish.boardingarea.c...orld-airlines/