The mystery of the red case

A mysterious case often appears on the conveyor belts in Malpensa Airport. It has been noticed by more than one passenger waiting in front of the conveyor belts that deliver the cases. And this morning, the newspaper “Il Corriere della Sera” brought attention to the matter, with the letter of a reader, who wrote, “On several occasions, I’ve noticed that the first piece of luggage that appears on the conveyor belt in Malpensa is a red one.” The letter also pointed out that the appearance of the read case, which was packed with newspapers, had a practical consequence. “The lucky case stops the clock on the monitor that shows the time between landing and the delivery of the first piece of luggage. Unfortunately, after the red case, 20 minutes will pass before another case appears on the belt.” The letter to “Il Corriere della Sera” accuses the airport management company SEA. And at this point, there is a mystery to be solved: whose is the mysterious red case?

SEA has rejected any accusations, and actually claims to be the injured party. “The matter described by the reader,” the company’s note explains, “relates to a flight organized by a rival of SEA Handling (which is entirely controlled by SEA), and so SEA would, obviously have no interest in falsely reducing the luggage delivery time.” However, this behaviour is misleading for the passengers, and harms SEA, because it is a form of unfair competition. The luggage service on that flight in question was provided by the international handling company Aviapartner. “SEA is considering possible legal action against the people responsible for what happened.” This is also because the passenger-reader opened the piece of luggage without authorization. SEA has explained that the use of a “test piece of luggage” is a practice “that almost every handler uses to release any cases or rucksacks that have got stuck on the conveyor belts. This is why they are made heavy (on this occasion, with newspapers), and why passengers might have often seen them.”

This practice is confirmed also by Aviapartner, who explain, however, (in a press release this afternoon) that the red piece of luggage did not belong to them, and that “Aviapartner does not adopt this practice and therefore is not responsible for the events that the passenger brought to light.”

And what about the “modified” delivery time? According to Aviapartner “the first piece of luggage from that flight was delivered after 16 minutes, as the airport detection system confirmed.” So the company apparently did not benefit in any way.

But the question remains: whose is the red piece of luggage?