Cardiff Airport is the latest UK airport to announce it making changes to the 100ml liquid hand luggage rule, and the good news is that it will be in time for Christmas. The airport says the next generation security scanners are up and running after what has been described as a “cost-delay”.
The new technology allows passengers to leave liquids under 100ml in their hand luggage, meaning the screening process should be quicker. It also means passengers will be able to leave laptops, tablets and mobile phones in their hand luggage as they pass through security screening.
The Welsh Government gave the airport £6.6m to pay for the new 3D airport scanners. You can read more about that here. Without these scanners, Cardiff Airport would have had to terminate commercial passenger operations.
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Cardiff Airport team with new scanners -Credit:Cardiff Airport
Under new rules, all UK airports which carried more than a million passengers per year in 2019 had to replace their existing scanners with new ones by June 2024. Cardiff is one of several airports which applied for an extension to allow it to install the scanners
Spencer Birns, CEO of Cardiff Airport, said: “I would like to say a special thank you to our teams for working tirelessly to deliver this project. This state-of-the-art facility is a significant investment for the growth and future development of our National Airport. Safety and security is our number one priority. We have worked closely with our suppliers, who I also want to thank for their hard work and support.”
When making the investment announcement the Welsh Government said: “As experienced by many other airports across the UK, the cost of installing the scanners at Cardiff Airport has escalated significantly from initial estimates. This is partly due to inflation but also due to the complexity of installing the equipment in a 1970’s era building; a process which has required the safe removal of asbestos in a live operational environment.”
The statement adds: “Whilst aviation security is a reserved matter for the UK Government, it has consistently refused to provide any financial support for the respective UK airports to make the transition to NGS to meet the new legislated deadlines, despite the ongoing inflationary pressures on the industry.
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