‘New’ hand luggage travel guidelines in SA – Where can you keep your laptop?

You’re probably packing your bags for that well-deserved December holiday. We get it — we’re all ready to ditch the office and relax. You’ll have to pack extra carefully if you’re flying this year because the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) is tightening hand luggage regulations to align with aviation safety and compliance standards.

These regulations, applicable across ACSA’s entire airport network, intend to more efficiently manage hand luggage on aircraft. They should also identify non-compliant items before they reach the security checkpoint.

It’s important to note that these rules aren’t new. The ACSA has just decided to be more strict regarding enforcement. These regulations apply to domestic flights, as well as regional and international flights departing from South Africa.

How it works

Just as before, but now even more strictly: hand luggage weight checks will be conducted at security points before passengers proceed to the boarding gates. The biggest change comes to the hand luggage allocation and, more specifically, how you pack your laptop. Here goes:

• Economy class passengers are allocated one bag plus one slimline laptop bag or handbag.
• First-class passengers are allocated two bags plus a slimline laptop bag.
• All these bags must not exceed the total dimensions of 56cm x 36cm x 23cm.
• And the weight limit per bag is 7kg.

Defining ‘slimline’

Don’t even think about sneaking in a regular laptop bag. ACSA wants you to know that a slimline laptop bag is for laptops and chargers only. This means no clothes or documents may accompany your laptop.

This may bring about some contention, considering laptops come in diverse shapes and sizes, along with unique power bricks and chargers. We can tell that ACSA security officers will have their hands full with gamers travelling with their beefy gaming setups along with those bulky 240W power bricks.

The type of ‘slimline laptop bag’ that comfortably takes a Macbook Air won’t even closely resemble one that houses an Asus ROG Strix Scar 18-inch that comes with a power brick chunky enough to bench with at the gym.

It also seems that people who carry handbags may need to choose between a slimline laptop bag and a handbag, along with their normal carry-on.