TSA to ease airline liquids rule

Follows easing of shoes check in July

- ALLYSON VERSPRILLE

Passengers at American airports complied in resigned exasperation with rules like having to remove shoes and limit shampoo in hand baggage — part of security measures put in place after the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Now, for the first time in almost 20 years, they're having a different experience.

Pre-flight screening as of last month no longer requires passengers to take off their shoes and run them through X-ray machines. Up next: Officials have signalled they intend to ease the rule limiting containers of carry-on liquids to no more than 3.4 ounces, though it’s unclear whether it would apply to all passengers and airports or a select few to start.

The changes “sound small maybe in a vacuum or in a silo, but in aggregate these are things that have significant impacts to the passenger,” Adam Stahl, acting deputy administrator for the Transportation Security Administration, said in an interview Thursday, just ahead of a Labor Day weekend in which the TSA expected to screen almost 17.4 million passengers, 2% above last year's total.

Mr Stahl wouldn’t get into specifics about potential changes to the liquids rule, but said the agency expects an announcement in the near future, adding that it’s a “huge priority” for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Rules on pulling laptops out of carry-ons for screening is another area being looked at, he said.

In addition, the TSA last month began a pilot project to allow some international travellers catching connecting flights in the US to avoid screening during the layover — beginning with select flights from London. It’s also been expanding the use of biometrics for identity verification.