Passengers will have to be more comfortable – Newspaper Kommersant No. 208 (7409) dated 11/10/2022

According to Kommersant, Sheremetyevo Airport suggested that airlines prohibit the transportation of passengers if they came to the landing with excess hand luggage. The fact is that the Federal Air Transport Agency in the summer demanded that airports strictly comply with the requirements for re-screening personal belongings when checking in luggage, which threatens to delay flights. The airlines say they can remove passengers from the flight anyway, but this rarely happens.

Sheremetyevo Handling (MASH service company) offered its base airlines to refuse transportation of passengers with excess hand luggage. The letter was sent on October 31 (Kommersant has it). In it, the airport offered its own solutions to the problem of flight delays due to the re-registration of personal belongings as baggage. The company explained the risks of such delays with a telegram from the Federal Air Transport Agency (Kommersant has it), which at the end of July notified airports of the need to re-screen excess hand luggage if it had to be checked in during boarding.

The procedures for screening and re-registering hand luggage as luggage take from 20 minutes and at least 55 minutes – with entry into the manual screening room, Sheremetyevo Handling writes. This can lead to flight delays and passenger complaints of shortages if airport officials remove prohibited items.

To prevent delays, Sheremetyevo offers airlines, in addition to removing passengers from the flight, either to take such baggage into the cabin at their discretion, or to send such baggage on the next flight.

According to aviation regulations, some items can only be carried in hand luggage and cannot be checked in: in particular, lithium batteries (including as part of gadgets, such as laptops) and gas lighters. Some airlines impose their own restrictions: for example, at Aeroflot, a passenger cannot check in as baggage, but can take up to 2 kg of dry ice with him. At Ural Airlines, dry ice can be checked in as baggage with prior permission.

The requirement to check hand luggage upon check-in is contained in airport regulations, but not included in the regulations.

In the order of the Ministry of Transport No. 104, to which the Federal Air Transport Agency refers, a second inspection is possible only with “information about the threat of an act of unlawful interference.” If the screening led to a delay of a passenger, representatives of the airport and the airline “take measures to send him on the next flight.”

According to the Air Code (Article 85), the contract of carriage is considered terminated only if the passenger refuses the pre-flight screening. Finally, the ICAO Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods (Doc 9284) states that if an operator takes baggage into the hold, he “must obtain confirmation from the passenger” that prohibited items have been removed from it.

As Kommersant’s interlocutors in a number of airlines explained, in practice, carriers either allow things to be carried into the cabin or checked in as luggage without repeated inspections (sometimes without additional payment if carriers do not have portable cash registers at the gate).

As a source in the Ministry of Transport explained to Kommersant, a reminder of the inadmissibility of such a practice was sent out in connection with the “forced increase in aviation security measures” and in order to avoid “massive flight delays.”

In Sheremetyevo, Kommersant clarified that now, according to the rules of airlines, excess luggage that was found during boarding must be marked with a baggage tag, then the passenger, before entering the plane, hands it over to an employee who places it in the luggage compartment. At the same time, in accordance with the requirements of the Federal Air Transport Agency, all hand luggage that is subject to check-in as baggage must be delivered to the terminal for inspection in the baggage handling system, which may lead to a flight delay. Sheremetyevo added that until now, cases of non-admission of passengers to the flight for this reason were extremely rare.

Vnukovo noted that many airlines prefer to load hand luggage into the luggage compartment under the aircraft, “believing that it has been screened,” although this is prohibited. Domodedovo said that “if the airline decides to place hand luggage in the luggage compartment, then the possibility of re-screening should be provided.”

Kommersant’s interlocutors in some airlines criticized Sheremetyevo’s proposal, believing that the established practice did not cause problems. And if you oblige airlines to take on board excess baggage, this will lead to passenger abuse.

Aeroflot told Kommersant that Sheremetyevo’s proposals are “a well-established long-term practice.”

In some cases, Aeroflot allows the placement of hand luggage in the baggage and cargo compartments “subject to certain conditions, including the requirement for re-screening.” The airline also has the right not to carry such baggage, and if the passenger refuses to fly without it, then such a refusal “will be considered voluntary.”

Rossiya said that employees of the airport or the airline itself will check the dimensions and weight of the passenger’s hand luggage before boarding the plane, but do not inspect it. In Pobeda, whose calibrators are the most compact, as well as S7, Smartavia and Azur Air, they did not answer “Kommersant”.

Red Wings said that if a passenger carried excess baggage to the boarding gate, then the procedure for paying for it, screening and checking it in as baggage takes “depending on the airport and flight time, 20-30 minutes.” And if such a passenger arrives for boarding shortly before it ends, then by his actions he can cause a flight delay, “but such cases are rare for Red Wings.” At the same time, the company added that any carrier can indeed prevent a passenger with excess hand luggage from boarding a flight “for violating the rules of the airline and, as a result, the contract of carriage.”

According to the law, the non-admission of a passenger with excess items to a flight is possible only in one case: if he refuses to pay for luggage, says the head of the All-Russian Association of Passengers, Ilya Zotov.

In order to prevent scandals with massive refusals to let a passenger on a plane, all airlines must give the opportunity to pay for the service at the gate. In addition, some carriers should make more effective notifications about the parameters of hand luggage during online check-in of passengers.

Aigul Abdullina