Newly updated EU regulation has reintroduced restrictions on passengers travelling with a European airline.

As of September 1, 2024, these passengers must carry at most 100ml liquids in their cabin baggage, including aerosol and gel containers, Schengen.News reports.

The communicated news was commented on in a press release by Airports Council International (ACI) Europe, which noted that the new measure will impact both passengers and airports.

New Measure to Impact Negatively Passengers’ Travelling Experience & Airports’ Investments

ACI Europe has called on the EU Commission and Member States to establish a roadmap with set goals for the measure, which according to them, is temporary.

The new restriction has caused all airports that had installed C3 scanners which are the most advanced devices for detection standards. Until now, these scanners allowed passengers to carry liquids without any restriction, as well as keep them along with electronic devices, such as laptops.

ACI expects that the new restriction will result in significant operational strain and will impact the passenger experience and airports that have deployed this sort of technology, considering that purchasing C3 scanners, can cost almost eight times more than the regular machines. Their maintenance costs are also four times higher.

However, the fact remains that those airports which have been early adopters of this new technology are being heavily penalised both operationally and financially. They had taken the decision to invest and deploy C3 scanners in good faith, based on the EU having greenlighted this equipment without any restrictions attached. 

He also urged that moving forward, the EU certification system has to provide the necessary “legal certainty”.

Many EU Countries Have Deployed C3 Scanners

Some airports in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden and Malta have deployed C3 scanners, while in the UK, a total of six smaller airports have installed the devices. All of these UK airports are required to implement the new liquid rule.

Like the EU, the British authorities did not have a specific roadmap for the new rule introduced.

This temporary move is to enable further improvements to be made to the new checkpoint systems and will only affect a small number of passengers. 

The UK airports were required by the government to deploy the new scanners by June 1, 2024, but were later postponed for another year due to many airports in the UK, including the biggest and with the most traffic, did not make it on time to deploy C3 scanners.