The liquid limit has seen radical shifts in policy that airports complain cost them a fortune.
EDS CB C3 screening technology (also known as C3 scanners) allows passengers to avoid the infamous 100-ml limitation — introduced in 2006 due to terrorist threats — and keep their liquids in their bags at security checkpoints.
The scanners have been installed at major hubs such as Munich, Rome, Frankfurt and Milan, as well as at smaller airports like Palma de Mallorca and Vilnius.
But the Commission banned the practice in September as a “precautionary measure not in response to any new threat but addresses a temporary technical issue.”
That eliminated the main incentive for airports to invest in C3 scanners, which are “on average eight times more expensive than the conventional X-ray screening machines they are replacing, while operating maintenance costs are four times higher,” ACI Europe said in reaction to the EU decision.
Similar restrictions were introduced in the U.K., but the country backtracked in April and once again allows larger liquid containers.
