Transporting firearms by air: SAA problems

[Paul]

Pretty much.

[Budza]

SAA has to oblige the state institutions who must transport their issued weapons on official business.

Who will do it if they can't?

[ARM505]

At the moment, in the absence of SAA, nobody, to the best of my knowledge.

This is one of those things that the security people in each airline basically can't be assed to study up on (they have enough on their plate, and ever increasing 'security' restrictions to take care of), there is zero pressure from management to make it happen because the numbers of people who would like to travel with a firearm is statistically tiny so there is basically zero profit in it, and nobody wants to take responsibility for that kind of thing (from every angle, ACSA, the airlines, the CAA etc). Especially given the......hmmm....how can I put this......'difficulty' of employing reliable people on the ground who will actually do the job of handling the items (managements conflicting desire to hire the cheapest possible labour for what is essentially carrying a box from a to b, but having to pay them enough not to be tempted to steal, or being so dumb they lose it).

It's one of those hard problems where the business model of profit and loss, combined with massive hurdles (security theatre is *expensive*) means it's very hard to come up with a solution that is cost effective enough for the average citizen. The cost would be dumped on the airlines, an industry that skates the razors edge of profitability at the best of times. Ergo, they don't do it. If SAA does fold, I feel that another carrier would make some kind of plan because the service would no longer exist at all, and the state might be prepared to pay the required prices, but right now......there just isn't the incentive.