The airport will now use computed tomography (CT) scanners, similar to ones used in hospitals, to take 3D, high-resolution photos of baggage that airport staff can view from all angles to determine what’s inside without the need for hand baggage to be unpacked.

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Travellers will no longer have to take out their drinks and beauty products or put them in clear plastic bags to pass through security. Also, the new liquid limit will be two litres. It is the biggest relaxation in aviation security in decades.

New rules will also apply to laptops. They will not need to be removed from passenger bags to be scanned separately.

London City Airport is the first UK airport to opt out of these requirements, and 2D scanners are used during security checks.

The new machines will be rolled out across all major UK airports by June 2024. This is the deadline set to install new technology. It’s hoped that this change will speed up wait times at security.

Trials of the new scanners began in 2018, including at Terminal 3 in Heathrow and at Gatwick and Birmingham airports.

„We have just started the expansion of the security area in Terminal 3, which will have more CT scanners and have a deadline of mid-2024. By then the normal passenger experience will be that liquids stay in bags.” – Heathrow’s chief executive, John Holland-Kaye.

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Technology is already being used in the US and Amsterdam. Few airports in Ireland, which have 3D scanners in operation, have already lifted their bans, and Teeside International Airport (north-east England) has already installed the new equipment.

The liquid ban was introduced worldwide after a transatlantic terrorist plot was foiled in August 2006, in which a group planned to detonate liquid explosives on board multiple flights from Heathrow to North America, intended to kill even more people than 9/11.

Author: Patrycja Bodzek-Kurzyńska

Photo: OLIVER BERG/dpa