Another major airport is set to ditch the 100ml liquid rule in time for the school summer holidays, but others are set to miss the June 2024 deadline.
Airports in the UK are getting ready to introduce new luggage scanners that will mean passengers no longer have to remove liquids and electronic items from their bags.
Current rules state that liquids can only be carried in containers of up to 100ml, and came into place in 2006 in the wake of a terror scare.
Bristol Airport has announced plans to ditch the rules, with its new scanners set to be rolled out by June 14, just in time for the summer school holidays.
This means tight restrictions around 100ml liquids will be scrapped, allowing travellers to take more with them when they travel both abroad and domestically.
The West Country airport has spent £11.5m on the new devices, with every British airline given the deadline of this summer.
Bristol Airport has announced plans to ditch the rules, with its new scanners set to be rolled out by June 14, just in time for the summer school holidays
It is hoped the new technology will shorten queues seen at airports. Pictured: Bristol Airport during the Easter getaway rush
Graeme Gamble, chief operating officer at Bristol Airport, told Bristol Live: ‘We are delighted all customers travelling from Bristol Airport will benefit from state-of-the-art technology being introduced at security.
‘The new equipment will reduce customer stress and inconvenience as the need for 100ml liquids to be placed in clear, plastic bags and removed from hand baggage will no longer be required.
‘The new process delivers a much more customer friendly security operation using the latest technology and providing enhanced screening, allowing customers to keep personal items in their hand luggage.’
It follows Birmingham who earlier this week became the first major airport to scrap the 100ml liquid hand luggage rule in time for the half-term weekend.
The new technology will slash waiting times by allowing passengers to leave laptops and liquids in their carry-on baggage
Birmingham Airport will become the first major UK airport to implement the new scanners which will scrap the need for the 100ml liquid rule
Some smaller airports – London City, in the Docklands, and Teesside Airport in Darlington – have already installed the new technology, but the vast majority are yet to.
This means holidaymakers across the country will still face long waits at most major airports this summer, with London Heathrow, Gatwick, and Manchester unlikely to be ready to roll out the new scanners. It is understood they now have until June 2025.
Gatwick has said it hopes to have all remaining scanners installed by the first three months of next year, a time frame similar to that of Stansted and Manchester.
Luton and Bristol airports are aiming to follow Birmingham in introducing the scanners by June, with Bristol investing more than £10million in security equipment.
Several airports already have the technology installed in some security lanes, but have not yet implemented them across the board.
Under new plans, all UK airports will be kitted out with 3D scanner technology which can produce more detailed images, meaning passengers can pass through airport security with containers holding up to two litres of liquid in their hand luggage.
The new technology will work by allowing staff to rotate, tilt and zoom in on each 3D image, allowing them to better inspect the contents without passengers having to remove them from their bags.
A June 2024 deadline was previously set by the Department of Transport for all airports to introduce the new CT scanners, however almost none of the major travel hubs are likely to meet this date.
In 2006 police foiled a terrorist plot to bring down at least seven transatlantic flights with liquid explosives disguised as 500ml drinks bottles.
The Al-Qaeda bomb plot saw terrorists attempt to take home-made mixtures of chemicals concealed as ordinary drinks bottles onto a number of US and Canada-bound flights departing from London.
An immediate ban on all liquids except baby milk in carry-ons was put into effect in both the UK and the US, but was relaxed in November 2006 to the 100ml liquid limit.
Speaking of the innovative technology, Nick Barton, chief executive of Birmingham airport, told The Times: ‘The existing scanner is like a large domestic washing machine.
‘The new machines are the size of a Ford Transit.’