One of the London airports has removed the 100ml limit for liquids in hand luggage, as well as the requirements to take out electronics from carry-ons, and travelers are loving it.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t down to the fact that airports realized it was a bogus security concern, but rather because they got new tomography machines that produce a 3D image of the scanned baggage rather than a 2D one.
In the east London City Airport, staff at the security lines cheerily tell everyone to keep everything in their bags—no need to pull out their see-through baggie of micro-toiletries or their laptop computer.
Recently, a journalist shoved a large carry-on bag through the mouth of the airport baggage screener, and, conditioned by more than a decade of regulations on liquid size, expected her “vats” of mouthwash, sun lotion, and hand cream, to set off an alarm and delay two dozen people behind her in the security line.
For at least some airports, this is a situation that needs never be repeated.
“It was gorgeous, a morning present,” said one passenger—Lynne Schey, who was heading for Ibiza. “I asked for a plastic bag to put things in but they said I didn’t need one. Phenomenal.”
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That journalist, reporting for the Guardian, explains how several airports in Europe are ditching the old liquid limit, but that others still have it enforced, as well as the one for separating electronics.
“We are getting 30% more passengers through [an hour],” Alison FitzGerald, London City Airport’s COO, told the newspaper. “It’s much less stressful from a passenger point of view. The information that’s provided to the security officer is much more enhanced so the threat detection has improved significantly.”
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The UK has currently set a deadline of 2024 for the installation of new machines and thus the removal of the old requirements, while Australia and the Netherlands are also on that path.
For now, transit passengers should always keep an eye on airport regs, lest their liquid baggage be cleared at one port of call, and idiotically, confiscated at another.
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