Airport boss disappointed by liquids rule change

Nick Barton said passengers' experience was not what had been planned for them

The chief executive of Birmingham Airport has said he is "very disappointed" with changes to rules for liquids in carry-on baggage.

Since Sunday, following government stipulation, passengers at all UK airports have been allowed to carry no more than 100ml in liquids, pastes and gels in their hand luggage.

Birmingham had spent £60m to upgrade its security desks and introduce hi-tech scanners known as Next Generation Security Checkpoints (NGSC), which would have allowed passengers there in the future to carry up to two litres.

Nick Barton said the situation passengers found themselves in was "not what we planned to give them".

The new scanning tech had meant that some UK airports with the provision had already relaxed liquid limits.

While Birmingham Airport had upgraded to the equipment, the site had kept to 100ml, putting it down to “an outstanding regulatory approval" on the new screening machines.

But on Friday, the government announced a return to rules predating the tech.

It said the 100ml restriction was being reintroduced at the six regional sites that had relaxed the rule to "enable further improvements to be made to the new checkpoint systems".

The move was not in response to a specific threat, it added.

The government has announced a temporary return to the 100ml limit on liquids in cabin luggage

Mr Barton told the BBC the airport had to plan for the government's direction to remain in place "for the next few days".

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the reintroduction of restrictions was to allow “changes” to be made to the scanning equipment.

“It's a temporary measure and we’ll set out when that can be reversed in due course,” he told the BBC.

Mr Barton said the government had told major airports to have the improved security technology installed by 1 June.

He called it a "fantastic bit of infrastructure" that should result in "huge benefits to speed".

Once fully operational, he said it would allow passengers to leave containers carrying up to two litres in their bags.

He added that in the meantime, about one in six passengers going through security in Birmingham were generally not following procedures over liquids and that slowed down the checking process and led to longer queues.

He said he was asking all passengers to "help themselves" by ensuring there were no bottles of 100ml or more inside their cabin bags.

The bottles or containers can remain inside their bags, though, and do not have to be removed.

To cope with delays he said the airport had "deployed a huge amount of human resource in the terminal" to speed up the security process.