China raises air security in heightened precaution

Civil aviation authorities, rarely, decided to raise security safeguards at Chinese airports to ratchet up airport and flight safety.

Like most developed countries, passengers are now required to remove shoes and belts during security checks and all their luggage and belongings will be opened during the process.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) didn't give any reason for the increased security and passengers hadn't been notified in advance, but there was speculation the move was related to the recent discovery of knives and other banned items at an airport in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Regions in China's northwestern area.

Similar security measures were put in place during the 2008 Olympic Games which was held in Beijing and the World Expo in Shanghai last year.

Yesterday, the imposition of stricter checks has caused long queues at the Beijing Capital International Airport, and some passengers were engaged in arguments and even scuffles, as they lost patience to o wait longer to get through security checks.

"The longest journey in the world is from the security checkpoint to the boarding gate and the most painful thing in the world is that you finish the journey but the plane door has closed," The Shanghai Daily quoted one passenger as saying on his micro-blog. The man missed his flight and had to wait for the next one.

Photos posted online yesterday showed the airport crowded with passengers in scenes that were described as like a "busy and noisy railway station during the annual spring rush."

Passengers said it took them more than an hour to get through security and about half of them had their luggage opened and subjected to detailed inspections.

There were no problems in Shanghai, however, as more security channels were opened and the checks went smoothly, airport officials said.

They said the level of checks was raised according to the requirements of the civil aviation authority but "no passengers missed flights because of the checks."

Security staff will not demand that all luggage be checked in order to maintain passenger flow, they said. Normally passengers need to wait no more than 10 minutes before passing through the checks at Pudong International Airport and no more than 15 minutes at Hongqiao International Airport, the officials said.

However, airline companies are advising passengers to arrive at airports two to three hours ahead of their departure time rather than the previous one to two hours.

On August 3, security staff at Xinjiang's Urumqi airport found a knife hidden in a water bottle and another one in an umbrella a few days later. Around the same period, other banned items such as inflammable goods and electric shock devices were also seized from passengers, The Shanghai Daily reported on Monday.