Europe’s busiest airport is lastly ditching one of the crucial cumbersome necessities at safety checkpoints.
London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) on Friday introduced it formally scrapped its limits on carry-on liquids.
Meaning now you can move by way of Heathrow safety with a full-size bottle of shampoo, water or sunscreen — and also you needn’t take away it out of your bag, both.
Passengers had beforehand been restricted to 100 milliliters per container for any fluids they wished to carry by way of checkpoints. (That is roughly equal to the three.4-ounce limitation the Transportation Safety Administration continues to implement right here within the U.S.)
Rely this as one trouble eliminated for vacationers connecting in London, flying onward to a different world vacation spot — or getting ready to make the trek dwelling to the U.S.
The relaxed guidelines apply to the entire airport’s terminals. Flyers now not must take away massive digital gadgets from their luggage, both.
Learn extra: TSA to cost vacationers $45 if they do not have Actual ID
Transferring towards the top of 100-milliliter liquids limitations
The tip of the liquids limitations at London’s essential world hub has been a very long time coming.
It has been years for the reason that U.Ok.’s Division for Transport ordered airports to begin getting ready to take away this safety checkpoint rule, owing to upgrades in screening know-how.
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However whereas numerous particular person airports have relaxed liquids guidelines (each within the U.Ok. and European Union), rolling again this decades-old coverage has encountered loads of delays.
Friday’s announcement that Heathrow has completed away with liquids limitations, although, is a significant milestone in making airport safety in Europe extra seamless for vacationers.
“Each Heathrow passenger can now go away their liquids and laptops of their luggage at safety as we turn out to be the most important airport on this planet to roll out the newest safety scanning know-how,” Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye mentioned in an announcement Friday. “Meaning much less time getting ready for safety and extra time having fun with their journey – and hundreds of thousands fewer single-use plastic luggage.”
To Woldbye’s level, airport leaders count on they will save 16 million plastic luggage by ditching this regulation — since passengers beforehand needed to corral all of their liquid product containers in baggies earlier than passing by way of safety.
Safety will get smoother for hundreds of thousands of vacationers
Heathrow is a significant hub for journey between the U.S. and Europe.
Airways operated 41,000 flights from LHR to the U.S. in 2025, in accordance with information from aviation analytics agency Cirium.
TSA liquids rule: Is it subsequent to go after the sneakers coverage ended?
The looming query now: Will the U.S. comply with go well with and ditch its decades-old 3-1-1 liquids coverage?
Final summer time, the Trump administration signaled it was open to exploring the same change, although TSA officers have lengthy instructed me that the top to the company’s liquids, gels and aerosols limitations was doubtless years away.
“I am hoping it is going to be earlier reasonably than later. However it’s not across the nook,” former TSA Administrator David Pekoske instructed me in late 2024.
Airports around the globe carried out measurement restrictions on carry-on liquids amid terrorism issues within the mid-2000s.
However improved bag-screening tech in recent times has led safety officers in lots of elements of the world to start rethinking these insurance policies.
Within the U.S., the TSA in July 2025 ended one other longtime safety requirement: The company stopped requiring most passengers to take away their sneakers at checkpoints.
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