Manchester Airport has the new CT scanner technology installed across all three terminals — but passengers are still being told to stick to the old 100ml liquid rule because the airport hasn’t yet received the regulatory green light to scrap it.
According to consumer group Which?, the 100ml rule has now been lifted at Heathrow, Gatwick, Edinburgh, Birmingham, Bristol, Belfast International and Belfast City, with passengers able to take liquids up to 2 litres through security at those locations. At Manchester and Luton, the maximum remains 100ml — even though, in Manchester’s case, the underlying scanner technology has already been installed.
Coverage by British Brief explained that the new system at Manchester Airport is being held back by approvals rather than equipment. The airport’s multi-million-pound rollout of CT scanners across all security lanes in Terminals 1, 2 and 3 is complete, but the rules can only relax when the Department for Transport gives formal sign-off. The new tech provides 3D imagery of cabin bag contents, allowing security teams to inspect liquids and electronics without unpacking them.
Even now, before the limit changes, passengers at Manchester benefit from one improvement: liquids can be kept inside hand luggage at security rather than separated into clear plastic bags, and laptops can stay in bags too. The bottle size limit, however, is still the long-standing 100ml.
It’s worth noting that the wider story is also more complicated than it looks. The original plan was for all UK airports to roll out the new scanners by mid-2024, but coverage by Engineering and Technology Magazine confirms that timeline slipped due to global supply chain pressures, cost and complexity. Heathrow only completed its £1bn upgrade in early 2026 — making it, at the time of completion, the largest airport in the world to fully roll out next-generation CT scanners.
Travel publication Holiday Expert highlights another twist: in 2024, the UK partially rolled back some of the relaxed rules where they had been introduced, with the Department for Transport saying improvements were still needed to ensure the scanners worked correctly. That history is part of why the DfT is taking a cautious approach to formally signing off Manchester and other airports.
For passengers, the practical advice remains the same — assume the strictest rules apply until your specific departure airport confirms otherwise. And for taxi and private hire drivers running airport jobs, it’s worth letting customers know which airport rules apply, particularly on return legs from destinations that may still enforce 100ml limits even if the departure airport doesn’t.
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Sources:
- Airport liquid rules in 2026, from 100ml containers to clear plastic bags — Which?
- Manchester Airport Liquid Rules: The 100ml Hand Luggage Confusion Finally Cleared Up — British Brief
- Heathrow finally scraps 100ml liquid limit after £1bn scanner upgrade — Engineering and Technology Magazine
- Is the 100ml Liquid Rule for Cabin Luggage Changing in 2026? — Holiday Expert
