Airport restrictions on carrying bottled drinks, shampoo and perfume on to flights will be relaxed from next year, although the majority of passengers will have to wait until 2013 before the measures are scrapped.
Strict guidelines on taking liquids through security gates have irritated passengers and created mounds of discarded cosmetics and water bottles in departure lounges, with Heathrow alone confiscating 2,000 tonnes of liquids every year.
The transport secretary, Philip Hammond, confirmed that the first phase in relaxing the ban, which applies to liquids, aerosols and gels in containers greater than 100ml, will begin in April next year. Transfer passengers from outside the EU will be allowed to carry liquids bought in duty free shops on to connecting flights within Europe, ending a restriction that has seen the impounding of duty-free goods.
However, those liquids will still have to be carried in clear plastic bags and put through screening machines.
Duty free purchases made in a handful of countries, including the US or Canada, are already allowed on to connecting flights and tax-exempt purchases made at EU airports are also allowed onboard transfer flights within Europe.
However, the bulk of passengers will have to wait until 29 April 2013 before they can put larger containers of liquids in their carry-on luggage. The current guidelines will be scrapped in 2013, by which point European airports must have acquired screening machines that can detect suspicious liquids.
In an interview at the weekend, Hammond sympathised with parents who have suffered from one of the more outlandish restrictions – tasting your child's food in order to prove that it is not explosive. "I have seen mothers tasting it, and doesn't it taste foul?" He added: "The good news is that by 2013 the ban on mush will have ended."
The liquid restrictions were imposed in August 2006 after anti-terror police disrupted a plot to blow up airlines flying out of Heathrow with liquid-based bombs. The 100ml ban is an EU-wide measure and the rule changes, such as the alteration for transfer passengers, will be carried out simultaneously across Europe.
Last month the UK's largest airport owner, BAA, called for an overhaul of aviation security, warning that it is playing into terrorists' hands by being too predictable. The airport group is testing a new security system that trains staff to spot suspicious or anomalous behaviour by passengers, who are then referred to immigration officers or police if employees remain concerned after questioning them.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/dec/05/airports-relax-ban-liquids-hand-luggage
