End of the mini shampoos as airports ditch liquids rule

HOLIDAYMAKERS may soon be spared having to buy mini toiletries before flying as the 100ml liquids rule looks set to be axed.

By 2024, 3D baggage scanners will be rolled out across British airports allowing travellers to keep liquids in their hand luggage instead of having to pull them out at security to be screened. The technology also means laptops and other electronic devices can remain inside carry-on bags.

Heathrow boss John Holland-Kaye told The Times: ‘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 from the Department

for Transport. By then the normal passenger experience will be that liquids stay in bags.’

Passengers were forbidden from carrying liquids over 100 ml, which included water, in 2006 over fears of explosives being smuggled on to aircraft and detonated.

This followed a terror plot to take dangerous chemicals in ordinary drinks bottles on to US and Canada-bound flights from London. The plan was thwarted but caused chaos to international aviation and prompted the tightening of rules.

In 2019, then transport secretary Grant Shapps said that if successful, trials of 3D scanners could mean ‘an end to passengers having to use plastic bags or rationing what they take away with them’.