Airport luggage theft: five ACSA employees fired

Five Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) employees have been fired for luggage theft at OR Tambo airport in the past week, it was reported on Tuesday.

Two of them were arrested, reported Beeld newspaper.

Assistant general manager of airport operations Tebogo Mekgoe said the employees were caught red-handed after a recent security upgrade at the airport.

"ACSA is pulling out all the stops to combat luggage theft. Incidents of luggage theft and tampering have dropped by one third over the past two years," Mekgoe told the newspaper.

He said ACSA spent about R7.2 million a year on luggage security measures.

Incidents of tampering had declined from 18 out of 1000 passengers who departed in January 2010, to 10,4 out of 1000, a year later.