South African Airways (SAA) has advised its customers of additional restrictions when travelling to the United States.
“In terms of the United States’ Transportation Security Administration (TSA), there will be additional security requirements for flights to the United States of America (USA) and these will be in the form of restrictions to carry certain specified items in the cabin under specified circumstances,” said SAA spokesperson Tlali Tlali.
“These restrictions are imposed on all passengers in transit/transfer to the USA and will apply to both SAA flights to the United States.”
The restrictions relate to liquids, aerosols and gels (LAGS) purchased at duty-free areas of the airports by passengers in transit on flights originating from Johannesburg, Accra and Dakar.
Under the new rules, LAGS may not be transported in cabin baggage (accessible property) of any passengers connecting to the USA from these three cities: Johannesburg, Accra, and Dakar.
This requirement does, however, not affect duty-free purchased at the last point of departure in those cities.
For SAA to comply with this restriction, SAA’s security gate search teams conducting current gate passenger screening will verify any duty-free items purchased at upstream airports and will deny the carriage of such items on the flight, regardless of whether such items are packed in security tamper evidence bags or not, Tlali said.