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United Kingdom Government Transportation Hardware

Rules On Liquids and Laptops To Be Eased At UK Airports From June 2024 80

Posted by BeauHD from the it's-about-time dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: Rules around taking liquids and laptops through airport security will be eased from June 2024, the government has said. The announcement of the biggest relaxation of aviation security regulations in decades confirms reports last month that the change would come in the year after next. Passengers at most major UK airports will be able to carry liquids in containers holding up to two liters, a huge increase from the current limit of 100ml. Travelers will also no longer need to carry the containers in clear plastic bags, or remove tablets and laptops from hand luggage at checkpoints. The Department for Transport said major airports would be required to install new technology that gives security staff more detailed images of what is in passengers' bags. It will lay new legislation around the changes in parliament on Thursday. The transport secretary, Mark Harper, said: "The tiny toiletry has become a staple of airport security checkpoints, but that's all set to change. I'm streamlining cabin bag rules at airports while enhancing security."

"By 2024, major airports across the UK will have the latest security tech installed, reducing queueing times, improving the passenger experience, and most importantly detecting potential threats."
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Rules On Liquids and Laptops To Be Eased At UK Airports From June 2024 More

Rules On Liquids and Laptops To Be Eased At UK Airports From June 2024

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  • The real benefit (Score:5, Insightful)

    by leathered ( 780018 ) on Thursday December 15, 2022 @09:23AM (#63132616)

    People can take their own drinks through security and no longer be ripped off by vendors in the departure lounge.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )
      For me the real benefit is the days where I used to have about 8 one litre wine bricks in the carry on case on trips back from Spain.

      • This is about the UK. What are Spainâ(TM)s rules?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by DrXym ( 126579 )
          Spanish airports and others are also installing 3d scanners so presumably they'll also loosen their limits in due course. And it was just me remembering beating the system in the past. Something great about nonchalantly trying to bring that stuff through as if the handluggage is light as a feather.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Malc ( 1751 )

            In fairness, when I transited through Madrid airport last month, the part of security I went through took my bottle of water and tested it. Not sure if the normal security area does this though.

            My real point though is I think people will get caught out on their way home.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      People can take their own drinks through security and no longer be ripped off by vendors in the departure lounge.

      Not until 2024 (London Heathrow may be sooner, but this is the deadline for all UK airports).

      Also only if your final departure point is in the UK or are certain you will not need to pass security again during transit (some airports have additional security at the gate, Singapore Changi for example or if you're passing through the Schengen zone). Basically you're still being held hostage by the rules at other airports.

      • England and the USA are the only places I have flown that have these stupid rules about liquids. IIRC it derives from the "shoe bomber" and the "underpants bomber" back in the mid 2000s, back when the authorities were paranoid about 9/11 and were frantically trying to make aviation suck as much as possible. And anyone who pointed out that it was all "security theater," invasive, expensive and inefficient was accused of sympathizing with the terrorists.

        • You haven't been to Japan, mainland China, Singapore, Hong Kong, or Australia, or almost any of the EU countries then - and those are just the places I can remember off the top of my head with the same restrictions.

          The only country I know of that currently lets large liquids through security is Netherlands (Rotterdam and Amsterdam).

          • Sure. But how many of those countries implemented those rules becuse they're actually so brickshittingly stupid and useless as the TSA knuckledraggers? And how many of them did it because their airlines would be cut of from the US if they didn't?

          • I definitely didn't see this in Belgium, Switzerland or Australia in 2022. They may apply the rule selectively, e.g if you're connecting through the USA or UK?

            But yeah, Singapore airport is a joke. I guess they just really like authoritarianism there.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Zarhan ( 415465 )

      Or you can just take an empty bottle through security and fill it on the airside from a water fountain (if the local water is potable).

      • Thatâ(TM)s not always the case. I couldnâ(TM)t find a drinking fountain at Gatwick a few years ago in this scenario. Then there are those airports that do security at the gate and have a final secure departure lounge with no facilities but a couple of vendor machines, if youâ(TM)re lucky.

        • Tap water is perfectly drinkable in most European countries. I doubt that these final secure departure lounges you have in mind don't have toilets with washbasins.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Malc ( 1751 )

            Actually you're wrong. No taps. No toilets. No services at all. Very annoying if your flight is delayed.

  • It was always about obedience, not security (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Shadow of Eternity ( 795165 ) on Thursday December 15, 2022 @09:58AM (#63132648)

    That's why they took all those liquids and put them in a single trash container right in the middle of the largest most densely packed crowd in the airport. The point was never to convince anyone that those liquids were a genuine security threat, but specifically to make it as obvious as possible that they weren't while forcing people to participate in the charade.

    ...the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.
    -Theodore Dalrymple.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      That's why they took all those liquids and put them in a single trash container right in the middle of the largest most densely packed crowd in the airport. The point was never to convince anyone that those liquids were a genuine security threat, but specifically to make it as obvious as possible that they weren't while forcing people to participate in the charade.

      The thing is, a lot of other nations figured this out years ago. Australia dropped the restrictions on domestic flights years ago but because the US is enforcing it on the entire world they needed to keep the LAG restrictions on international flights.

      The UK is loopholing their way out, by claiming that the new scanners which will be installed at every airport by 2024 are good enough to detect anything malicious.

      Honestly the best part is not taking my laptop out of my bag any more.

      • The solution here is for the rest of the world to collectively say "Enough, this is bullshit, if you refuse our flights we'll refuse all of yours as well. Have fun not being able to go anywhere in the world".

      • Iâ(TM)ve also checked in about six years ago at Tullamarine for a domestic flight without having my ID checked. What could go wrong? Things are obviously so much better in Australia.

      • Honestly the best part is not taking my laptop out of my bag any more.

        It's generally reassuring to know they are now using scanners capable of seeing through 3mm of neoprene cover!

    • Re:It was always about obedience, not security (Score:5, Informative)

      by thegarbz ( 1787294 ) on Thursday December 15, 2022 @10:17AM (#63132668)

      That's why they took all those liquids and put them in a single trash container right in the middle of the largest most densely packed crowd in the airport.

      You are equating risks where you can't. The risk of liquids is obviously quite low, but we've bombed security lines in the past and the death toll is significantly smaller (despite them having a far larger bomb) than taking out a plane. The biggest one was Moscow airport with a deathtoll of 35. You're massively overestimating how many people you can kill easily in an open area. It would be almost more effective to simply go with a machine gun and open fire. Airport security is not armed, and by the time the actual armed security shows up you'll have a body count anyway.

      Don't get me wrong most of the security theatre is just that, but the liquid thing was rooted in a very real attack, not some nebulous "obedience" conspiracy. As it stands people were already following strict lists of rules for flying before they banned liquids. I'm not more of a sheep following 35 rules instead of 34.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by pjt33 ( 739471 )

        The liquid thing was rooted in a very real plot, but it wasn't a real threat. TATP isn't something you prepare just by tipping one bottle into another and shaking it. To get a worthwhile explosive you need to react your acetone and peroxide very slowly with lots of cooling. If someone tried to do it in a plane toilet then they might injure their own hand, but they're not going to bring the plane down.

      • The objective of terrorism is forcing political change through terror, not the killing itself. Killing can create terror based on the kind of killing as well as the amount. Attacking the security apparatus create disproportionate terror since it is the thing the politicians claimed would keep you safe which made you unsafe.

    • No. Security services stopped a plot which was planning an attack aeroplanes using bombs made primarily of Hydrogen Peroxide contained in pop bottles. https://www.reuters.com/articl... [reuters.com]

      • From TFA you linked, the authorities stopped that plot _before_ any of these rules were in place. They probably used good old fashioned police work instead of expensive, invasive searches of every single passenger.

  • What about job security for all those agents who won't be needed? What about the profits for selling water bottles on the other side of security? What about needless intimidation of passengers, because they didn't properly disassemble their luggage into separate trays? Even the remaining restrictions make no sense.

    But...what about security theater? /s

    Seriously, the sheer cost in time - centuries of people's lifetimes blown standing in stupid lines - this was always theater and never worth anything.

    • Re:But, but... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by ZorinLynx ( 31751 ) on Thursday December 15, 2022 @11:05AM (#63132794) Homepage

      >What about needless intimidation of passengers

      This is a big one.

      I got yelled at by a TSA guy because I didn't take my iPad out of my backpack. The previous time I'd flown, I didn't have to. But that time I did. Being yelled at like he is a drill instructor is unnecessary, I would have taken the iPad out if asked politely too. Also I had no idea the rules had changed; I don't fly often.

      They seem to hire, on average, more aggressive people than most other jobs. Any rule changes to reduce the amount of conflict with them at checkpoints is a win, in my opinion.

  • AMS-Schiphol hasn't required you to throw out your liquids for well over a year now, nor remove anything from your bags. It was never something that made any kind of sense.

  • The Real Benefit? (Score:3)

    by NoWayNoShapeNoForm ( 7060585 ) on Thursday December 15, 2022 @10:21AM (#63132682)

    Now we won't have to empty our bladders before going through security at any UK airport !

    /s

  • A buddy of mine's gaming laptop had a liquid cooled gpu, until airport security informed him that airport security noticed this, and told him that they thought it may have been an explosive, and destroyed it. Luckily, he had nothing of importance on it (just games), and they paid him back the cost of it.

  • Boris Johnson, someone who constantly says things, and does nothing about them, had mandated that all UK airports will have this implemented by end of 2022, so in 2 weeks on Saturday.

    Like a lot of things he said, it was nonsense.

    Perhaps someone less incompetent has taken charge.

    But probably not.

  • This has always been security theatre (Score:4, Informative)

    by dskoll ( 99328 ) on Thursday December 15, 2022 @10:38AM (#63132726) Homepage

    I flew out of Ben Gurion Airport in 2011 and there were no restrictions at all on liquids. That's an airport that actually has security rather than security theatre .

    • Reminds me of that quote:

      "What you have here is not security, but a system for inconveniencing passengers."
      —El Al security expert, consulting to the US Transportation Security Administration

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ghoul ( 157158 )
      Ben Gurion simply uses racial profiling. Given Israel only messes with brown people, it works. Wouldnt work for US as US pisses off people of all races.

  • I guess this means we have to retire that old Airport Logic [lovethispic.com] liquid bottle joke about "Theater Security Agents" who miss miss 70% - 95% [google.com] of weapons, etc.

  • When I first read the headline, I thought "there are laws regarding liquids and laptops?" wondering what the EU or UK did.

    Did they outlaw spilling drinks on your laptop? Or did they mandate that laptops must contain protections against drinks spilled on them>? I mean, earlier Lenovo laptops had "rain gutters" that if you spilled something on the keyboard, it channeled the liquid down special channels so the liquid got dumped out the bottom of the case. Still a mess to clean up but better than having to

  • Woohoo (Score:3)

    by Vegan Cyclist ( 1650427 ) on Thursday December 15, 2022 @11:55AM (#63132886) Homepage

    Let's travel like it's 2001 folks!

    • That's crazy talk! Back then you didn't even have to have a plane ticket to go through security, you could go to wait in the gate area for your arriving friends or family, or to see them off.

  • I was going through the security theater screen at London Heathrow. I had placed my liquids (toothpaste, shaving cream, contact solution, etc.) in a clear cosmetic case which I dutifully placed on the conveyer along with my laptop and other carry-on plunder. An officious security officer retrieved the little case and held it up to me. "Sir, liquids are to be placed in a clear plastic bag." "I believe that bag is plastic, and it appears to be clear." He pointed up the conveyer to where the bags were in a

  • Most EU airports have had much laxer security requirements for a long time. The US for example is the only country on earth that makes you take shoes off, a major time suck at the airport.

    • Only the USA and UK have these ludicrous policies. Note that in the rest of the world, we still don't see exploded aircraft raining from the sky. It's almost as if the rules are bullshit.

    • No, security imbeciles in UK still make you take off your shoes as well. Just happened to me exactly 1 week ago.

  • USA? (Score:2)

    by antdude ( 79039 )

    When will USA do the same?

    • I read that the US is testing technology that will allow them to get rid of the liquids, laptop, and shoes rules. But apparently they will still require you to take off your coat, as the tech is nowhere close to handling coats yet.

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