Controls at the airport: Flying with more liquid: EU allows new luggage rules

Previously, strict rules for liquids in hand luggage have been valid for air travelers. Now the path is free in the EU for an end to the fluid quantity limit for air travel. The European Union has approved Scanner, which can reliably recognize liquid explosives and theoretically allow larger bottles in hand luggage, as a spokeswoman for the EU Commission of the German Press Agency said. Everything else is now a matter for the airports.

At least in Germany, the end of the 100-milliliter container rule should be a little long in coming, although there are long since existing scanner. The reason is that there are also old devices and that travelers have not yet been able to provide information about the scanner at which they will go through the security control. In addition, the right software is missing from some new devices.

This continues for the time being that passengers can only take liquids with a volume of up to 100 milliliters in containers – and that they must be packed in a reclassifying transparent plastic bag with a maximum volume of up to one liter.

Several German airports have new scanners

According to a spokeswoman, the largest German airport in Frankfurt is already on 40 of the almost 190 traces of control. 40 other devices are firmly ordered. For the time being, nothing will change for the passengers. The spokeswoman points out that one cannot know beforehand which technology is checked the hand luggage of the respective passenger. It is not clear when the entire airport is equipped with the new technology.

Passengers also have to be patient in Munich. The necessary scanners are already available in a larger number at Munich Airport, but the software of the devices must still be adapted, as a spokesman for the government from Upper Bavaria reports. Out of consideration for the high volume of passengers during the Bavarian summer vacation, the adjustments are postponed to a previously unknown time. The restriction of 100 milliliters remains here. In any case, it continues to apply to the signs of control with the old conventional technology.

New scanners are computer tomograph

According to the EU Commission, around 700 devices with the now approved technology are currently being used or installed at airports in 21 countries of the European Union. The devices of the British manufacturer Smith’s Detection illuminate the hand luggage with the technique of computer tomography (CT) known from medicine.

Instead of less blurred supervisory images, they deliver hundreds of shots of the luggage without lust for the tempo, which enables three -dimensional views on the control screen and the layer of the luggage content. Fixed and liquid explosives can also be recognized by the devices.

The fluid restrictions in air traffic were introduced in 2006 after it became known that terrorists on board an aircraft could produce explosives from several liquids.

The nationwide, complete changeover of all signs of control is complex, said a spokeswoman for the ADV airport association. It not only causes high acquisition costs, but also requires extensive structural adjustments to the checkpoints, for example because the devices are larger. Depending on the responsibility for the implementation of the controls, the airport operators themselves, the Federal Ministry of the Interior or the air security authorities of the federal states could be financed.

Previous doubts about the technology

CT scanner have been in use for years. Immediately after their introduction, larger fluid containers were sometimes accepted on the corresponding traces. However, there was no official recommendation. Last summer, however, doubts about the reliability of the luggage scanners appeared and the EU ordered further reviews.