Self-service checks for carry-on bags

HONGQIAO International Airport has installed a self-service luggage screening machine for travelers to check whether their carry-on luggage can be taken onto the plane.

It is in the T2 terminal, the Shanghai Airport Authority said yesterday.

When passengers put their luggage on it and choose an airline, the machine will check whether the size or weight complies with the carrier’s rules.

It can remind passengers to check in oversize or overweight luggage in time. The machine is also equipped with a disinfection facility to sterilize the luggage while screening, the authority said.

Airlines have different rules for carryon luggage. China Eastern and Juneyao airlines, for example, say each business and economy class passenger can take carry-on luggage up to 10 kilograms. Air China and China Southern say carry-on luggage should be 5 kilograms or less.

Previously, staff at ticket counters or boarding gates relied on visual checks and required those carrying oversized or overweight luggage to return to the airlines’ counters to check them in.

The nation has certainly been a trend-setter in the field. Sales of electric cars, plug-in hybrids and fuel-cell vehicles hit a record of 179,000 last month, soaring nearly 300 percent from a year earlier, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. It was the seventh consecutive month of increases.