New Hong Kong Airport Luggage Rules Create Security Risk

Hong Kong Airport cabin crews believe new rules on luggage create unnecessary security risks.

• By Sydny Shepard
• Sep 17, 2018

New luggage rules at Hong Kong airport believed to be relaxed due to a lawsuit involving the daughter of the city's former leader Leung Chun-ying have compromised aviation security, according to the Cabin Crew Federation.

The rules were changed following an incident in which Chun-ying's daughter had a forgotten piece of luggage delivered to her at the gate before take off nearly two years ago. The issue, for the Cabin Crew Federation, is whether hand luggage could be taken through security screening without the passenger present, and did airport security succumbed to authority and compromised security in doing so in the case of Leung Chung-yan.

The Hong Kong Aviation Security Program had required passengers to be present for the screening of "all cabin baggage," but the rules were amended in April, two months before the court heard the judicial review, and airport staff were unaware of the change until the court revealed it at the hearing.

Federation spokeswoman Carol Ng Man-yee on Friday said the new rules had created a great danger to security, and there was a real need to reinstate the old practice.

“Under the new rules a passenger’s presence is no longer required during the first screening of cabin baggage. His or her presence is only required for secondary screening. This is a very big loophole,” Man-yee said. “It’s not safe."