Raise compensation for lost or damaged baggage

Staff members unload parcels from a plane of China Southern Airlines at the Wuhan International Airport in Wuhan city, Central China's Hubei province, August 8, 2013. [Photo/IC]

Two porcelain bowls, which the owner claims were worth about 260 million yuan ($39 million), were broken when he was transporting them on a flight from Shanghai to Tianjin in March. The airline says it will compensate him at its fixed rate of 100 yuan per kilogram because they were in the baggage and not declared as valuables or fragile articles. Beijing News commented on Monday:

It is understandable that the law limits the compensation for lost or damaged baggage to 100 yuan per kilogram or less, as air delivery is not without risks.

However, according to the law on civil aviation, the limited compensation does not apply to passengers whose luggage is damaged through carelessness by the carrier.

More than a decade ago, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislative body, approved the Convention for the Unification of Certain Rules for International Carriage by Air, which stipulates that a passenger can receive up to 10,900 yuan in compensation for lost luggage.

Yet the rule is yet to be adopted, so carriers can limit the compensation they pay for lost or damaged luggage.

Still, using the 100-yuan-per-kilogram rule, which has not been revised in over 10 years, to refuse to properly compensate passengers, constitutes a violation of consumers' rights, even though the passenger failed to declare the valuables in the baggage.