Many airline passengers say the worst a part of any journey is the airport safety verify. Worldwide, a mean of half a million people pass through airport security every hour. Travellers resent the restrict on LAGs (liquids, aerosols and gels) in cabin baggage, in addition to the duty to extract electronics reminiscent of laptops and tablets from hand baggage.
The liquids guidelines have been launched swiftly worldwide in 2006 as “a short lived measure” to guard in opposition to explosives. Regardless of repeated guarantees they continue to be in place.
In 2019 Boris Johnson vowed the foundations could be eased at main UK airports by 2022, permitting bigger portions and eliminating the necessity to have liquids individually scanned. Rishi Sunak’s authorities then prolonged that deadline to 1 June 2024.
Whereas among the UK’s airports complied, at different areas the work was not quick sufficient to fulfill the deadline. And in any occasion, per week after the deadline, progress in aviation security really went into reverse, with the Department for Transport (DfT) ordering airports with the new equipment to restore the old 100ml limit on LAGs.
There may be, although, a level of enchancment: passengers can go away laptops, tablets and liquids inside their cabin baggage the place the brand new scanners are fitted.
The Unbiased has learnt that almost all of main airports are absolutely fitted with the costly new package.
Simon Calder, former safety officer at Gatwick airport and present Unbiased journey correspondent, explains extra.
Cabin baggage: what are the foundations?
The checklist of things that can’t be taken by means of an airport safety checkpoints in carry-on luggage has elevated over the many years. Prohibitions have developed in response to terrorist assaults – profitable and in any other case.
All weapons, whether or not firearms, knives or explosives, are banned from hand baggage. However there are additionally strict guidelines about bigger portions of liquids, aerosols, gels, pastes, lotions and cosmetics, extending even to yoghurt, gentle cheese and Creme Eggs.
The UK authorities says: “Should you do take liquids in your hand baggage, at most airports:
- containers should maintain not more than 100ml
- containers should be in a single, clear, resealable plastic bag, which holds not more than a litre and measures roughly 20cm x 20cm
- contents should match comfortably contained in the bag so it may be sealed
- the bag should not be knotted or tied on the prime
- you’re restricted to 1 plastic bag per particular person
- you need to present the bag on the airport safety level
It provides that frozen liquids are banned, and warns: “Airport safety workers is not going to let something by means of that they take into account harmful – even when it’s usually allowed in hand baggage.”
How did the liquids rule come about?
In August 2006 the aviation trade – and baffled passengers – awoke to search out safety guidelines for passengers had tightened in a single day. The federal government introduced that it had uncovered a terror plot to blow up transatlantic jets from Heathrow to North America.
The perpetrators aimed to take the elements for improvised explosive gadgets on board a lot of plane. The elements, derived from hydrogen peroxide, have been meant to be smuggled aboard in gentle drink containers. The plotters aimed to assemble the bombs on board earlier than detonating them and destroying the airplane. They have been later convicted of offences together with conspiracy to homicide and conspiracy to trigger explosions.
The bosses of Britain’s airways have been referred to as within the early hours of 10 August 2006 to be informed their passengers could be banned from carrying something greater than a handbag or pockets into an plane cabin. Even pens have been banned from transatlantic flights, on the grounds that the ink they contained was a liquid.
One concession was made, for nursing moms: they might take milk for his or her child by means of the checkpoint, however provided that they tasted it first in entrance of safety workers to show it was the actual factor.
Baggage techniques couldn’t address two or 3 times the conventional variety of gadgets, and Heathrow airport floor nearly to a standstill. Flight networks elsewhere within the UK and Europe have been additionally affected.
Three months later, the foundations have been eased – however with strict limits that prevail right this moment at most airports.
Why does the amount matter?
The 100ml restrict was chosen as a sufficiently low quantity to keep away from an on-board menace.
Have been they all the time meant to be everlasting?
No. The boundaries have been launched as a “short-term measure” whereas airport safety expertise caught up. However progress has been painfully gradual.
Even a really modest leisure of the foundations – to permit airport purchases of drinks to be taken by means of checkpoints in a sealed “safety tamper-evident bag” (Steb) – took years to be applied. Many passengers are nonetheless being caught out, shedding their costly airport purchases, as a result of duty-free drinks should not allowed by means of the airport the place they modify planes.
Is there a technological resolution?
Sure. Fashionable scanners use computed tomography (CT) – the identical expertise as medical scanners – to analyse the molecular construction of the contents of a passenger’s bag. The machines can detect potential threats and current safety officers with a three-dimensional picture of the contents.
They will additionally analyse whether or not laptops and different digital gear current a hazard.
At airports the place the expertise is put in, liquids and laptops not should be eliminated.
The intention is that safety needs to be enhanced, with extra subtle evaluation of potential threats. The quantity of workers time consumed in “secondary searches” needs to be lowered, permitting officers to spend extra time assessing passenger behaviour.
Travellers have a a lot simpler expertise: they not want deconstruct their cabin luggage, and the entire airport course of feels a lot smoother and fewer hectic.
Are all airports on the identical web page?
No. At some airports, LAGs should nonetheless be carried inside a resealable clear plastic bag with a most quantity of 1 litre, and eliminated for the safety verify. However at many UK airports with superior gear already put in, liquids ancan be left within the passenger’s baggage. These embody:
- Aberdeen
- Belfast Worldwide
- Birmingham
- Bristol
- Edinburgh
- Gatwick
- Leeds Bradford
- London City
- Luton
- Newcastle
- Southend
- Teesside
At different key airports, the set up of recent technology package is effectively below method – however some outdated tech stays. These embody:
- East Midlands
- Glasgow
- Heathrow
- Manchester
- Southampton
- Stansted
Why was the 100ml rule reimposed at airports?
On 9 June 2024 airports that had ploughed tens of tens of millions of kilos into assembly the federal government deadline have been abruptly ordered to revive the 100ml restrict. At London City and Teesside, for instance, the brand new scanners had been working effectively for over a yr, with passengers understanding
It was not an entire reversal; passengers will nonetheless have the ability to go away liquids, aerosols, gels, and so on, of their cabin baggage. They have to, although, be in containers of 100ml or much less.
It was described on the time by the Division for Transport as a “short-term transfer” to “allow additional enhancements to be made to the brand new checkpoint techniques”.
There are two issues. One is mis-identifying many innocuous gadgets in passengers’ baggage as posing a menace.
Sources have informed The Unbiased that innocent liquids reminiscent of sunscreen have been misidentified as high-threat substances. Innocuous gadgets reminiscent of books positioned near laptops, or bananas, have additionally triggered alarms.
The converse, and what alarms the aviation safety trade, is that harmful gadgets might be handed as secure.
When everybody is prepared, will that be the top of issues?
No. Worldwide, lack of conformity is a key difficulty for aviation safety professionals – and passengers.
At many airports liquids are restricted however can keep within the traveller’s bag. Laptops and tablets reminiscent of iPads should be eliminated at some airports within the UK and plenty of different nations, however in some nations they needn’t be.
The European Union (and wider Schengen Space) has additionally reverted to the “outdated” guidelines in any respect airports from 1 September 2024, following considerations concerning the new gear put in at some airports.
Olivier Jankovec, director basic of the airports’ physique ACI Europe, mentioned: “These airports which have been early adopters of this new expertise are being closely penalised each operationally and financially.”
In Israel, procedures are completely totally different. The authorities say: “Passengers ought to arrive three hours previous to departure for the safety verify process.” There may be typically intense questioning by officers, and laptops should be eliminated. However liquids are permitted with out restriction, besides to the US (see under).
The principle difficulty: passengers shouldn’t anticipate aviation safety to be the identical worldwide – and even UK-wide. At some small Scottish airports including Barra, Campbeltown and Tiree there have been no security checks since 2017.
And America does issues in a different way …
Whereas all different nations merely concentrate on outbound flights, the US imposes an entire algorithm on flights inbound from abroad to American airports – with explicit reference to “powder-like substances”. The 100ml rule can be strictly enforced.
The Transportation Security Administration says: “If you’re flying from any of the last-point-of-departure airports into the US, you could expertise a extra in depth screening course of and will put together for extra screening of your property and private digital gadgets.
“Ee encourage you to put powder-like substances over 350 m; in your checked luggage. Powders in carry-on baggage could require secondary screening, and powders that can’t be resolved by safety officers shall be prohibited from the cabin of the plane.”
Is high-tech safety going to price me extra?
The airports which might be collectively investing lots of of tens of millions of kilos shall be searching for a return – and that would embody elevating charges. However the long-term intention is that new tech ought to minimize workers prices, representing financial savings for airports.
Willie Walsh, director-general of the Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation (Iata) – representing airways worldwide – mentioned: “Implementing this expertise shouldn’t include an enormous invoice. The truth is, simplified processes ought to ship important efficiencies.”
“Speedy deployment needs to be doable. The expertise has already been used efficiently and for a very long time at numerous airports internationally with measurable enhancements to the passenger expertise.”
Will aviation safety stay a everlasting ache?
No. In 2019 Iata described the prevailing safety state of affairs as “not sustainable”. It has been working with airports for over a decade on a venture referred to as “Good Safety”.
Finally walk-through metallic detectors and safety pat-down of many passengers needs to be eradicated, with expertise assessing doable threats extra successfully than people watching screens.
The passenger ought to have the ability to stroll unchallenged alongside a hall flanked by detectors, barely conscious that they’re being checked.
Checkpoints will nonetheless be staffed, however safety personnel shall be freed as much as do what folks do finest, which is to check the behaviour of passengers and establish “individuals of curiosity” for additional investigation.
Nevertheless, because the reversals at UK and EU airports present, there’s a lengthy method to go.
