Acsa tackles luggage pilferage

August 12 2009 at 01:11PM



Twelve out of every 20 000 bags are tampered with at South Africa's airports every day, The Airports Company of South Africa (Acsa) said on Wednesday.

The company's head of security, Jason Tshabalala, told Parliament's portfolio committee on transport that baggage pilferage at South African airports was well below the world benchmark.

"The world benchmark for baggage pilferage is one bag per 1 000 per day, screened and handled by ground handling companies," he said at briefing to Parliament on the state of readiness of airports for the 2010 World Cup.

Tshabalala said the target was reduce pilferage to eight bags per 1 000 per day by 2010.


Acsa managing director Monhle Hlahla said that in most cases of theft out luggage during international travel, Acsa had found that the bag had already been tampered with by the time it was registered on its system.

She admitted however, that because so many people had experienced theft out of their luggage they could be feeling "gatvol" and not bother to complain.

"The bulk of people could be so gatvol that they don't bother to make a report," she said.

She said Acsa was looking at starting a system of using SMS messaging on cellphones to report incidence of luggage pilferage.

"We are only as smart as you enable us to be," she said.

Hlahla said theft of goods at airports was a national problem.

Investigations had shown that most goods that were stolen out of luggage were often taken back to "communities" and sold.

The company had managed the problem, she said.

"We have managed it. We pay teams above the airlines to go into the baggage areas and monitor."

She said the passengers could assist the company by the manner "they packed their bags".

"Even eight out of 1000 is not okay. But we make our efforts, we fail at times, but we are making progress." - Sapa

Oh hell, it's much, much higher than that! That's a crock of bullshit! A year ago we had the bags of of every passenger on the airplane pilfered and ransacked in Victoria Falls. None of us discovered it until we arrived in Jo'burg.

For the first time this year, I had my bag pilfered in Jo'berg. I didn't lose anything of consequence, mostly some watches and assorted small presents for the staff in camp.
However, I could find no mechanism for reporting this theft. Neither SAA or Delta agents could direct me to the appropriate place to file a report. In the end, it wasn't worth my time to pursue it very far.
But the incidence of pilferage is far higher than reported, I feel certain. I will also note that in several trips, this is the first problem I have encountered.

Bill

First off I agree with Use enough that it has to be higher, someone has "cooked the books". Second, I did only go to a state college, but if 1 per thousand was the benchmark, wouldn't 12 per twenty thousand be very good?

It all sounds like a lot of self-serving BS to me --

But, we can always hope.

Cover-up, plain and simple. As others have stated, self-serving bs.

quote:

Originally posted by Sevenxbjt:
First off I agree with Use enough that it has to be higher, someone has "cooked the books". Second, I did only go to a state college, but if 1 per thousand was the benchmark, wouldn't 12 per twenty thousand be very good?

I didn't go to college and I thought 12 per 20K was better than 1 per 1000 as well. Is the math different over there?

a bunch of self-serving bullshit.

It is what it is- Be smart- Dont put anything of value in your checked bags! If it aint there , it can't be stolen.

You can blame the airlines all you want but you have to remember, you're flying to a THIRD world country...
Why would you pack your stuff in an expensive travel case with 'Cabelas' written all over it? It's screaming 'Hey look, I'm a hunter and my optics and ammo are in here!'.
I want a well used and scratched up aluminum gun case that tells TSA this isn't my first rodeo and I want a cheap looking but durable bag to ship it in.
If I didn't have any pride at all, I'd have nothing but cheap pink bags. Even the thieves have some pride...

quote:

You can blame the airlines all you want but you have to remember, you're flying to a THIRD world country...

Yeah, like Chicago and Detroit!