The Airports Company of South Africa said on Tuesday it hopes to get luggage pilfering at OR Tambo International Airport down to eight bags a day by the time the 2010 Fifa World Cup kicks off.

Acsa airport operations manager Bongani Maseko told Parliament's public enterprises portfolio committee 30 bags a day were stolen or  tampered with daily at the country's biggest airport until recently.

That figure was reduced to 18, out of between 20 000 to 25 000 bags a day handled at the airport, after the airport employed new baggage handlers.

"Our 2010 target is reduction down to eight bags a day," he said.

Maseko said the risk of having your bag tampered with varied wildly from airline to airline, but Acsa did not have a policy of "naming and shaming" the worst culprits.

"With some airlines the levels of pilferage is nil, with other airlines there is opportunity for improvement."

He said Acsa relied on the goodwill of airlines to help combat the problem, but regretted that South Africa did not have a law, similar to that in the European Union, that forced carriers to disclose theft levels.

"They have made it a regulation and the airlines must respond," he said, adding that Acsa would like the department of transport to  draft legislation to bring South Africa in line with Europe.

"We have wanted to name and shame but our fear is that (since) nothing says we must do so, people will clam up. They will not provide us with statistics and the statistics we have are provided to us by the airlines."

Those airlines that do report their figures include South African Airways and British Airways.

Maseko said perceptions that South Africa was still far worse than other travel hubs in terms of luggage theft were unfounded.

"The perception was that we were way beyond international norms.  Statistics show we had a big problem three years ago but we have turned the corner."

Maseko conceded that several concerns remain ahead of the world's biggest sporting tournament, including how to handle football hooligans on flights and to prevent a repeat of the jet fuel crisis at OR Tambo this winter.

He said the shortage, which saw supply levels plummet to two days' worth instead of the required five, were the result of supply  and not storage problems.

Plans have been made with Transnet to increase the rail supply to the airport to 16 million litres a week during the World Cup from 11 million litres at present.

In order to achieve that, Transnet's jet fuel supply line would have to put in place an additional 66 rail tank cars and operate seven days a week instead of six, as it does now.

Maseko said supply problems have been such in the past that during "any given week" the average Transnet block train carrying

A1 jet fuel would go from having 32 tank cars to just 15.

This would prove disastrous during the World Cup as it would then be impossible to replenish stocks fast enough, he warned.

"We cannot have an interruption, we cannot afford for the Natref refinery (the source of 70 percent of the airport's jet fuel) to shut down. We need all supply lines into OR Tambo dedicated for the World Cup."

The department of energy has appointed a task team to ensure supply runs are steady for the tournament, which is also expected to see Transnet face extra demand for shifting other types of fuel.

Maseko said there were plans to put marshalls on planes carrying football supporters between major centres because it was clear that  in many cases fans from both sides would be travelling back to their base in the same plane post-match.