From September, European airline passengers will again be limited to 100ml of liquids in their carry-on baggage.
The European Commission has described this as a “temporary” and “precautionary” reintroduction and the measure applies to the EU and the European Economic Area and comes after the UK reinstated airport restrictions in June.
The change in policy appears to be due to concerns about whether modern CT and C3 scanners, recently installed at dozens of airports across the continent, can accurately read the bottles.
The C3 scanners were meant to make it easier for passengers to bring drinks and other large bottles onto aircraft.
Travellers heading to Europe from Hong Kong International Airport (above) must follow EU rules, even though Hong Kong has lifted carry-on liquid requirements. Photo: Dickson Lee
The EU policy change doesn't affect another key benefit of the new scanners: passengers won't have to remove devices like computers or tablets from their bags to have them checked separately.
And while most airports continue to use old-fashioned X-ray scanners, passengers still have to abide by the 100ml rule and check some electronic devices individually.
An officer at Hong Kong International Airport checks that travellers comply with rules on carrying liquids in carry-on luggage, which were implemented worldwide in 2007 as an anti-terrorism measure. Photo: David Wong
Airports Council International (ACI), the trade group representing continental European airports, said the EU rule changes were a “setback” for passengers and a “blow” to airports which had spent hundreds of millions of yen procuring and installing new “state-of-the-art” scanners.
ACI warned that the change in policy would place a “significant operational burden” on airports, forcing them to hire more staff and redeploy checkpoints, and called on the commission to say how long the reintroduced restrictions would last.
ACI recently announced that European air traffic, measured by airport passenger numbers, will recover to pre-pandemic, i.e. 2019, levels during the first half of 2024.
