Heathrow has released travellers from the tyranny of tiny toiletries after the UK’s biggest airport finally scrapped the 100ml limit on liquids in cabin bags.
The long-awaited rollout of a £1bn tech upgrade, with new scanners, means travellers no longer need to remove liquids or electronics from their hand luggage, or juggle plastic bags at security, and each container can hold up to two litres.
The restrictions have been in place since 2006 when the maximum size for liquids, pastes and gels in hand baggage was first introduced, after a foiled transatlantic bomb plot. The rules required passengers to put their micro-toiletries in clear plastic bags and remove large electrical devices such as tablets and laptops for checking.
Heathrow has installed the latest CT (computed tomography) scanners, which provide a 3D image of the contents of passenger’s bag. Birmingham, Bristol, Gatwick and Edinburgh are among the other UK airports to have already installed the technology.
“Every Heathrow passenger can now leave their liquids and laptops in their bags at security as we become the largest airport in the world to roll out the latest security scanning technology,” said Heathrow’s chief executive, Thomas Woldbye. “That means less time preparing for security and more time enjoying their journey.”
However, the rule change applies only to flights leaving Heathrow. So if you take bigger toiletries in hand luggage on an outbound flight, there is no guarantee of bringing them back through security abroad. Travel experts said passengers should check an airport’s restrictions before boarding return flights to the UK.
Travellers’ failure to heed the rules on liquids has been one of the biggest causes of delays at airport security. Heathrow estimates that its new scanners will save almost 16m plastic bags a year.
The original deadline for large UK airports to install the new scanners was December 2022. However, after the aviation industry suffered huge disruption during the pandemic, the deadline was pushed back to June 2024.
That deadline also came and went, even though a number of smaller airports had managed to make the switch ahead of schedule. Indeed, instead of ending the restrictions that summer, the government backtracked and ordered the airports that had dropped the 100ml limit on liquids to reinstate it. The EU did the same.
After that, passengers were subjected to a confusing patchwork, with airports at different stages of ending restrictions. Last summer, the transport secretary was still telling Britons to assume that the liquid limit stands.
Some British airports such as London City, Luton and Teesside, have the new scanners allowing passengers to keep liquids in bags, but only in containers holding up to 100ml, pending regulatory approval of the systems they are using.
