Agents on Open Jaw byTravelinfohave
reported incidents where their clients had valuable items stolen out of
their hand luggage when taking Mango and kulula.com flights outbound from Cape
Town International Airport.
Marianne Russell,
an ITC, told eTNW that one of her
clients had a Bluetooth phone-speaker stolen recently. “An official, stationed
on the tarmac, directing passengers on to the flight, stopped him and told him
there was no space for his hand luggage in the aircraft. They removed it from
him to ‘place it on Skytrack’. When he retrieved his bag from the baggage belt
at his destination, the Bluetooth phone-speaker was missing.”
She added that a woman, who was in front of him in line to
board, was also stopped and an expensive dress was removed from her baggage. It
was never returned to her.
Other agents reported items such as duffle jackets and
aftershave going missing in similar incidents, adding that a popular radio DJ
had recently had the same experience on a kulula.com flight.
In response to the accusations, Mango told eTNW: “Mango views the incident in a
serious light, and will investigate and discipline any staff members involved
who are found not to have followed the correct processes. Mango has zero tolerance
in respect of theft,” adding that baggage pilferage is unfortunately an issue
faced by airlines across the board.
Mango advised that official requests to remove hand luggage
from passengers should adhere to the following procedures:
• Guests should be asked to remove all valuables from the bags
• Guests should have signed limited liability on the tags attached to bag
• Bags should be cable tied
Passengers can insist on these procedures.
Mango added: “Reports of theft need to be reported on the
day in question and should be reported to the South African Police Service and
receive a case number for the relevant authorities to investigate and prosecute
offenders where applicable. If the matter was reported, it is important that
the guest supplies us with a Passenger Irregularity Claim reference number in
order to follow up with the relevant station in question.”
A
kulula.com spokesperson told eTNW:
“We have not received any queries or complaints from customers regarding this
matter. However, should a customer experience this on any of our flights, we
urge them to contact us immediately, so that we can address it and take the
appropriate action.”
