Strict liquid rules reintroduced across hundreds of airports in Europe – here’s everything you need to know

PASSENGERS across Europe once again have to deal with strict liquid rules, after they were reintroduced at airports throughout the continent yesterday.

The installation of new security scanners was due to significantly change things for travellers and, hopefully, make passing through airports a much smoother process.

However, plane passengers will have to wait before they can enjoy the benefits of the new security scanners, after the old 100ml rules were reintroduced across the board on Sunday.

Eventually, the new scanners will cut out the need to limit liquids to 100ml, as well as the need to remove them from bags for scanning, along with electronic items like laptops and tablets.

However, some airports have been much quicker to install the new technology than others, creating some confusion about which airports had the old 100ml rules in place and which ones didn’t.

Several airports in the UK, as well as a few in Europe, like Munich Airport, Rome Fiumicino Airport, Milano Malpensa Airport and Frankfurt Airport already have the new scanners in place.

For a short while, they were able to ditch the liquid restrictions, only for them to be brought back yesterday (September 1).

The European Commission is responsible for the reintroduced restrictions, following a similar decision made by the UK government.

Therefore, passengers travelling from European airports now need to make sure their liquids do not exceed 100ml once again.

The restrictions are set to stay in place for an indefinite period of time, with no date yet announced for them to be lifted again.

They could be set to stay in place for a while too, with the EU wanting more consistency to the technology throughout its airports.

This is to make it easier for passengers to know what the rules are when taking liquids through airports.

All airports operating inside the 27 EU member states, as well as Iceland, Switzerland and Norway, now need to comply with the original rules.

The 100ml restrictions are already in place in the UK, with the Government reintroducing the measures on June 9, 2024 – even though several UK airports had the new scanners up and running.

The UK is expected to be among the first to have the scanners installed at all of its airports, with the previous government giving them a deadline of June this year to have them in place.

Several have them in place now, but bigger airports like London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London Stansted and Manchester Airport have been given an extension until next summer.

For now holidaymakers have to stick to the rules as they had before, even at airports with the new machines in place.

The rule reversal was slammed by the Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe), who said they were “a blow to major investments”

Director Oliver Jankovec told Travel Weekly: “Airports which have been early adopters of this new technology are being heavily penalised operationally and financially.

“They took the decision to invest and deploy C3 scanners in good faith, based on the EU having greenlighted this equipment without any restriction.

“The decision to now impose significant restrictions to their use questions the trust and confidence the industry can place in the current EU certification system for aviation security equipment.”

Meanwhile, passengers have been warned that the rule reversals could lead to queues and delays.

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