CT technology is the best available, but is there a smart way of using it, to optimize it?” The current staffing constraints “puts pressure on us to design operations that are much more efficient. “It’s a continuing process for us as suppliers,” says Riordan. Smiths Detection is one of a small handful of companies in the CT technology field, with US company Leidos being a principal competitor – last year it was awarded a $470.7 million TSA contract to deploy checkpoint screening technology in the States. “Passenger numbers are recovering in many airports (probably) quicker than expected.” There have been widely reported staff shortages at airports and on airlines around the world, leading many to predict a “summer of chaos” ahead. “It’s a dynamic picture that we’re still trying to understand, what has the impact been over the last two years,” says Riordan. Shanghai to New York in two hours? China joins the hypersonic flight race Once more countries are able to complete full nationwide rollouts of the technology, we will start to see more airport and regions start to see the ban being lifted or relaxed – but changes to regulations will not come fast or universally, and it’s a changing landscape. “The UK has actually mandated that technology by 2024, and that would allow all restrictions about what you can carry on to be lifted.” “The Netherlands has moved quicker, probably, than most,” says Riordan. It’s no longer mandatory for its passengers to follow liquid restrictions, but the airport advises that they use 100-milliliter containers all the same, to avoid problems when flying to other jurisdictions. But unlike Southend or Donegal, it’s a major international hub. In July 2020, it was announced that London Southend Airport would become the first in Britain to drop the practice of making passengers take their liquids and electronics out of the bags before going through security.Īmsterstam Schiphol has also been using CT technology at all its checkpoints since 2020, Dennis Muller, senior spokesperson for the airport, tells CNN. The following year, Heathrow announced that it was investing £50 million (about $62 million) in a gradual rollout of the technology across its airports with a deadline of 2022. The scanners were trialled at major airports including London Heathrow, New York JFK and Amsterdam’s Schiphol. Inside Chicago O'Hare Airport's $8.5 billion revampĬT technology first began to make headlines back in 2018. That’s better security, better decisions.” “From a security point of view, they’re able to make very accurate decisions about what the materials are in your bag: Is it a likely threat material or is it benign. “You can get a lot of information from a 2D image but if you’ve got a 3D object in your hand you get a lot more information,” says Riordan. Just as with the CT scans we know from hospitals, the security scanners at airports replace conventional 2D X-ray scanning with much more precise 3D imaging. Kevin Riordan, head of checkpoint solutions at Smiths Detection, the company that provides Shannon’s security equipment and a global leader in computed tomography technology, explains. So how does this new CT technology work, which airports are already using it, and why aren’t more places relaxing their restrictions? Donegal Airport, in the northwest of Ireland, has also followed suit by installing new technology and dropping the 100-milliliter rule. Implemented during the pandemic, it was only when international travel resumed in March 2022 that the airport’s move started to gain wider attention. “It is one of the projects Shannon Group took on during the period of severe travel restrictions on aviation,” Nandi O’Sullivan, the group’s head of communications, tells CNN Travel. The world’s first Duty-Free shop opened here in 1947, and in 2009 it became the first airport in the world, outside of the Americas, to provide full US pre-clearance facilities. It’s not the first time Shannon, Europe’s most westerly airport, was a global pioneer. Liquids and electronics could now remain in bags, with no restrictions on liquid volume, and cabin bags could be whisked through the scans in new larger trays. However, at many airports around the world new technology is already in place that will allow that rule to be scrapped, and some are now beginning to drop the ban.īack in October 2021, Shannon Airport, in the west of Ireland, quietly announced its new state-of-the-art computed tomography, or CT, scanning security system, installed at a cost of €2.5 million (about $2.6 million). The requirement to put liquids into 100-milliliter containers and take electronics out of bags has been a staple of air travel for nearly 16 years. A quiet revolution is underway in how we transit airport security – but most of us won’t even have noticed.
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