THE Airports Company SA (Acsa) tends to take the most flak for the high incidence of baggage pilfering at our airports, and deservedly so. It charges hefty fees for the services it supposedly provides to passengers, yet has struggled to rid its ranks of thieving employees or put in place adequate measures to foil them.

I’ve developed a newfound sympathy for the parastatal lately though, despite having fallen victim to this most irritating of crimes during a 1Time flight to Johannesburg. One of Acsa’s defences has always been that it does not have the full co-operation of the airlines, some of which it says are quick to pass the buck despite being part of the problem. I now see its point, having been persuaded — against my better judgment and over pointless protest — to give up my hand luggage in Cape Town due to an alleged shortage of overhead stowage space inside the cabin. You’ve guessed the rest: when the bag was returned to me by an equally charming uniformed 1Time employee on the tarmac at OR Tambo, my expensive folding Bluetooth keyboard was gone.

The point here is that this was not the standard baggage handling process, which is largely Acsa’s responsibility. This was 1Time insisting on taking people’s possessions from them at the door of the plane, despite having allowed them to keep them as hand luggage at check-in, and then being unable to ensure their safety during the trip to the nearby hold.

Everybody knows not to leave any valuables in their checked-in luggage when passing through a South African airport, even if the bags are locked, which is precisely why hand luggage is bound to be full of things that are worth stealing. Yet the 1Time employee who deprived me of my bag — this was not optional — neither suggested that valuables be removed nor offered any way of securing it.

And I might as well not have bothered reporting the theft at the 1Time counter — it was made clear this was all my own fault and that the complaint form I insisted on filling in was a waste of time. Indeed, it’s now two weeks later and I have yet to receive the promised call with a response to my demand for compensation, or any other form of communication even acknowledging that the incident is on record.

At least now I know why the airline is called 1Time — the name is certainly going to be apt in my case.

Acsa is adamant that baggage “mishandling” at the airports under its control has dropped significantly over the past two years, from 18 incidents per 1000 bags at the beginning of last year to a little more than 10 per 1000 at present, which compares favourably with the global average. I suspect there’s a bit of spin here, since “mishandling” covers delays, damage and pilfering, which makes the international comparison unreliable. There’s little doubt that OR Tambo remains the undisputed baggage pilfering champion of the world, even if the situation has improved after millions of rand was invested in surveillance and automated handling equipment ahead of the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

But Acsa is making an effort, and pilfering has been reduced; the official figures are 36 bags a day broken into or otherwise interfered with three years ago, compared with 14 a day now. That’s a vast improvement, helped no doubt by a new zero-tolerance approach — as many as 20 people who used to work at OR Tambo have their access cards blacklisted in the year to date, meaning they can never work at an Acsa airport again, and criminal charges have been pressed in most cases.

Not all of the airlines are as contemptuous of their customers as 1Time, although South African Airways seems to have the same difficulty taking responsibility for luggage under its control. Comair , which operates British Airways and kulula in SA, is reporting a pilferage rate of one bag in 5000 at present, compared with an estimated three in 5000 by the other domestic airlines, after putting its money where its mouth is and employing a ramp-handling service that is dedicated to securing its customers’ bags.

As with so much else in SA, the difference between success and failure comes down to accountability. Acsa is starting to see that, and it’s about time all of the airlines followed its and Comair’s example.

• Marrs is Cape Editor.