Standing at the back of a long queue for baggage screening control checks could become a thing of the past if ministers rubber stamp plans to scrap 100-millilitre limits on liquids in hand luggage at UK airports – with reports suggesting an announcement is due before Christmas.
Currently, passengers must place all bottles and containers of liquids of no more than 100 millilitres inside clear plastic bags, separate from their main hand luggage, due to the limitations of the screening equipment.
However, new technology – currently being trialled at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports – will see advanced high-resolution CT scanners producing high-quality 3D images, enabling operators to inspect bags thoroughly from every angle without the need to remove items.
London City Airport has recently completed successful trials of the CT scanners and will be among the first UK airports to retire all existing conventional x-ray scanners and replace them with operational new CT scanners from April 2023. From this time, passengers will no longer remove liquids or laptops from their hand luggage when passing through security.
The Department for Transport has told major airports in the UK that older two-dimensional screening devices should be replaced with new CT scanners by mid-2024 in a bid to reduce congestion at security.
In the summer, Heathrow reported that some 60 per cent of bags rejected at security checkpoints resulted from passengers failing to remove liquids from their bags. These rejections required security hand searches and created longer passenger delays. Meanwhile, Gatwick Airport revealed that security rejected around 10,000 scanned hand luggage items per day.
The move towards advanced screening devices will improve airport security, significantly reduce the time it takes for passengers to transit through security and dramatically impact each airport's plastic usage. But while the proposals may be game-changing for future security delays, passengers are reminded that the 100-millilitre liquid controls still apply at all UK airports.
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