Those scanners can’t be used again until the European Civil Aviation Conference, the intergovernmental organization responsible for harmonizing air transport safety rules in Europe, recertifies them and the Commission gives its final stamp of approval.
The new EU approval applies to “700 scanners that are located across 21 member states,” Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, the Commission’s transport spokesperson, said Tuesday, adding that many are in “major hubs.”
“The decision concerns the first configuration of a certain type of scanners, and there are other types as well,” Itkonen said, noting that each airport will be responsible for communicating which rules apply to their checks.
“They will have to inform passengers fully whether they are using this latest technology or whether they’re not using it,” she said. “It does not mean that now all passengers everywhere in the EU can take bigger containers of liquids with them.”
That’s leading to very different security rules across the bloc, sometimes even in the same city or within the same hub.
Passengers departing from Milan, for example, are now allowed to bring up to 2 L of liquids past security if they depart from Linate airport or Terminal 1 of Malpensa, while at Terminal 2 of Malpensa they still have to stick to the old 100 ml rule.