WORLD
New scanners could end airline liquids ban
Baku, April 10 (AZERTAC). The ban on passengers taking liquids on planes could be lifted within a year after ministers approved a new generation of airport scanners.
Devices should be installed at every airport in Britain and across the EU by the end of next April, after they were approved by the Department for Transport.
Although passengers will still have to remove bottles from their cabin luggage for inspection, they will no longer be banned from carrying containers of fluid larger than 100ml.
This means that travellers will no longer face the frustration of having expensive toiletries confiscated at security gates.
They should also be allowed to bring their own water bottles onto planes.
A complete ban on carrying liquids onto an aircraft was introduced in August 2006 after a terrorist plot to down transatlantic aircraft, by mixing the liquid components of a bomb on board, was thwarted.
Although it was eased to allow passengers to bring liquids in containers up to 100 ml, the restrictions caused huge inconvenience to passengers.
According to Stansted Airport its security staff confiscate enough liquids to fill 20 household waste bins a day.
Passengers have surrendered bottles containing anything from Marmite to expensive vintage champagne, with one survey estimating the value of liquids at British airports at £10 million a day.
It had been hoped that the ban would be lifted across the European Union last year. But the plans were scrapped following representations by a number of Governments that the screening equipment was not fit for purpose.
There are already more than 200 scanners deployed at UK airports - including around 80 at Heathrow - which will be brought into use once the ban is finally lifted.
A spokesman for the Department for Transport confirmed that it had already approved devices and was working with the EU to meet the new deadline for lifting the restrictions, April 29 2013.
There could be further good news for passengers with an end in sight to the requirement to remove laptops from hand luggage for inspection, one of the main causes of security delays.
Equipment was successfully tested for 18 months at Heathrow, before being removed.
Now, however, the Transportation Security Administration in the United States is pushing for the restriction to be eased, with the EU expected to follow suit.