forum ramp You may have read about Virgin Atlantic’s innovation team, which has been investigating ways to pick up a passenger’s luggage before he leaves home and deliver it to the destination before the traveller arrives. Whilst this isn’t a novel idea in the US (the Coalition for Luggage Security has been advocating this option for a couple of years now), the concept lends itself admirably to the woe-ridden sector that is having trouble keeping, well, a grip on grips. However, the same spokesman admitted that the airline was “nowhere near” putting its plans into operation and that there were cost issues that needed consideration. “But it may well be a reality in the future,” he ended optimistically. BA: court in the act? A US-based legal company, Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro, has fi led an amended complaint against British Airways, expanding its allegations that the carrier acted recklessly when it lost more than 1m items of passenger baggage over the past year, and that it should reimburse passengers for actual losses. According to the suit, fi led in Seattle, BA loses 23 bags per 1,000 passengers carried, or about 60% more than the industry average. The fraction is actually twice as bad as the worst US carrier. “Since the complaint was fi led in September, we have been inundated with calls and e-mails from passengers who have experienced horrifi c treatment by British Airways in the way the airline dealt with baggage, and how they dealt with passengers searching for luggage,” claims Steve Berman, Managing Partner of the law company. The amended complaint apparently also includes fresh evidence from BA insiders acknowledging the breakdown in baggage handling. The suit seeks to recover actual losses incurred by travellers who had luggage lost, delayed or damaged. The Montreal Convention waives the US$1,500 loss limit when the carrier is deemed to have been reckless. Point blank A man with a gun apparently passed through a security checkpoint at Reagan National airport recently without being detected. A spokesman for the federal Transportation Security Administration said that the screener who was involved at the time of the incident had been relieved of security duties and that the matter was under investigation. Happily for the airport (and fellow passengers), before the traveller boarded his fl ight he realised that he still had the gun in his possession and returned voluntarily to the checkpoint. There, he declared the fi rearm which was duly confi scated. The traveller was issued with a summons for his honesty, although he was allowed to continue his trip. He was due in court this month on a charge of possessing or transporting a fi rearm into an air terminal. “We don’t allow any dangerous weapons in the terminal,” a spokesperson for the airport simply said. Reassuring news indeed. Basic instinct Without a doubt, budget airlines are causing airports to think anew their requirements. Finavia, for example, has jumped on to the no-frills terminal idea at Turku airport. Flushed with the success of its basic Tampere operation, it is converting an empty maintenance building into a passenger terminal and plans to cater for up to a dozen fl ights a day. A single service provider will carry out all of the duties that airlines require (in this case it will be Airpro) and the launch customer is Wizz Air. Elsewhere, it’s more of the same. At Kuala Lumpur, a dedicated low cost terminal is on the cards, aimed at soaking up the growing numbers of travellers that are passing through Malaysia. But it’s China that is witnessing the true explosion in air travel. In the planning stage at Xiamen airport is a dedicated low cost terminal to cope with the swelling traffi c; and at Wuhan Tianhe, a similar idea has been endorsed, with one of the four new terminals given over to budget carriers. 72 APRIL 2008 GHI A page where you, the reader, can comment on what’s right (and wrong) with the industry. Please write to the editor: alwyn@groundhandling.com Lost luggage: closing the case? C M Y CM MY CY CMY K TAS.ai 03/04/2008 12:15:38

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