Flyers rejoice: Heathrow may allow passengers to keep liquids in bags
Flyers passing through security at Heathrow could soon keep liquids and laptops in their luggage.
Heathrow said today it is investing more than £50m in a 3D security system based on computed tomography (CT) technology.
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Engineers will install the new equipment across Heathrow’s terminals by 2022, the company said.
It will ultimately allow passengers to keep liquids in their bags, and eliminate the need for separate plastic bags.
However, passengers will still have to follow the old rules until other UK airports adapt the technology.
“This cutting-edge equipment will not only keep the airport safe with the latest technology, but will mean that our future passengers can keep their focus on getting on with their journeys and spend less time preparing for security screening,” said Heathrow chief executive Chris Garton.
The rollout will also reduce the time spent queueing at security and help increase capacity, the airport said.
It will also reduce use of single-use plastics.
Airport officials are currently running assessments on other technologies, including biometric cameras and face recognition.
The equipment, which is being trialled until December, will make Heathrow “faster and more efficient”.
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However, critics of the technology say it raises privacy questions.
“Travellers should be very concerned with being photographed and scanned at airports — or anywhere else, for that matter, when it is done indiscriminately to the masses as proposed,” Wendy Thompson, a spokesperson for travellers’ group Freedom to Travel USA, told the Washington Post earlier this year.