Nearly a year after Birmingham and Edinburgh moved first, Europe's CT-scanner rollout has expanded across a growing list of airports, but the patchwork is still very much real. If you're flying through Europe in 2026, the question isn't whether the 100ml liquid rule is dead. It's whether the specific airport you're connecting through — on this specific day — has the new scanners installed and switched on.

For travelers, that means the old rule still applies as a default. You can pack up to a liter or two of liquids in your carry-on at some terminals, then get stopped at security on the return leg because your departure airport is still running legacy CT or X-ray equipment. The European Commission's aviation security guidance confirms the legal framework allows airports with certified next-generation screening to drop the 100ml cap, but doesn't force them to.

So here's the current state of play, who benefits, and how to pack so you're not the person at the bin holding up the line.

The news: scanners are rolling out, but slowly

The shorthand version: a number of European airports have approved CT scanners (Computed Tomography machines that generate 3D images of bag contents) in some or all of their security lanes. Where the scanners are running and certified, passengers can leave liquids in their carry-on and travel with containers larger than 100ml.

As of May 2026, the airports most commonly cited as having dropped or relaxed the 100ml rule include:

  • Birmingham (BHX) and Edinburgh (EDI) in the UK: early adopters, still leading.
  • Shannon (SNN) in Ireland: full rollout.
  • Amsterdam Schiphol (AMS): partial, lane-dependent.
  • Rome Fiumicino (FCO) and Milan Linate (LIN): partial, check the lane signage.
  • Frankfurt (FRA) and Munich (MUC): partial, mostly Terminal 2 at Munich.
  • Copenhagen (CPH): partial.
  • Helsinki (HEL): partial.

This list is not stable. Airports add lanes, recertify equipment, and occasionally re-impose the 100ml limit when a particular machine goes down or a regulatory review is underway. London Heathrow and Gatwick, despite installing scanners, have spent stretches of the past 18 months bouncing between the old and new rules, sometimes within the same week.

For an up-to-date check, the airport's own website is the most reliable source. The EU's Your Europe travel page lists the legal baseline (100ml unless your airport says otherwise) and links out to national authorities.

What's changing for you

It depends on how often you fly through Europe.

Frequent travelers: You probably already have the 3-1-1 packing routine baked in. The new scanners are a real quality-of-life upgrade at the airports that have them: full-size shampoo, sealed water bottles, jars of skincare. But the inconsistency means you can't rely on it. Most pros are still packing the quart bag and treating the scanner-equipped airports as a bonus, not the default.

Occasional travelers: Don't get caught out by a headline. If you read "Europe drops 100ml liquid rule" and assume your flight from Lisbon to Berlin is covered, you'll lose your liter of olive oil at security. Check both your origin and any connection airports, every time, in the week before you fly.

How we got here: the 2006 origin story

The 100ml rule didn't come from nowhere. In August 2006, UK authorities disrupted a plot to detonate liquid explosives on transatlantic flights from London. Within weeks, the EU and US imposed near-total bans on liquids in carry-ons. The 100ml limit and the transparent quart-size bag (3-1-1 in US shorthand) emerged in late 2006 as a compromise: small enough volumes that the residual risk was deemed acceptable, transparent enough that screeners could visually verify the contents.

The compromise stuck. For almost 20 years, the rule has been one of the most universally recognized, and universally disliked, features of air travel. Politicians regularly promised it would end "soon." It never did.

What finally changed was the technology. CT scanners, similar in principle to medical CT machines, generate detailed 3D images and use automated detection algorithms to flag explosives, including liquid explosives, with far higher accuracy than the older 2D X-ray machines. Once certified at the airport and lane level by national aviation authorities, they remove the need for the 100ml cap.

The EU's 2024 plan called for full deployment across major hubs by mid-2025. That target has come and gone. As multiple outlets including Politico and EU Perspectives reported through 2025, procurement delays, software certification issues, and inconsistent national rollouts have kept the patchwork in place well into 2026.

Expert analysis: why the rollout is taking so long

Three reasons keep coming up.

First, the machines are expensive. A single CT scanner runs into hundreds of thousands of euros, and airports need multiple units per terminal to maintain throughput. Many smaller and mid-sized airports simply haven't budgeted for the upgrade yet.

Second, certification is national. Even when the EU framework allows the 100ml rule to be dropped, each member state's civil aviation authority has to certify the specific machine, software version, and operational procedures at each lane. A vendor pushing a firmware update can temporarily decertify a lane until re-approved.

Third, when one airport in a country reverts to 100ml, usually because of a security review or a single faulty unit, others often follow as a precaution. Heathrow's repeated flip-flops in 2024 and 2025 had downstream effects across regional UK airports.

Compare that to the US, where the TSA is also testing CT scanners and gradually expanding TSA PreCheck touchless ID lanes, but where the 3-1-1 rule has been slow to budge. Different regulator, same essential problem: hardware ahead of the policy that governs it.

What this means: winners and losers

Winners

  • Travelers based in or connecting through Birmingham, Edinburgh, Shannon, and the other early-adopter airports. Skincare-heavy packers, parents with formula and breastmilk, business travelers who hate the dump-and-refill water bottle dance.
  • Families using the new TSA families on the fly lanes on the US side and getting a slightly less aggravating security experience on the EU return.
  • Anyone who finds the Capital One Venture X lounge experience pleasant but resents the pre-security liquid toss. Less waste, fewer purchases of overpriced airside water.

Losers

  • Travelers who don't check before they fly and pack confidently for the new rules on the outbound, only to surrender liquids on the return.
  • Airport ground operations at airports running mixed-rule terminals. Different lanes, different signage, more confusion at the front of the line.
  • Duty-free, in a small way. Some travelers have started buying full-size cosmetics and toiletries pre-trip rather than airside.

How to adapt your packing strategy

A practical framework:

1. Research before each trip. Check the official website of every airport on your itinerary, including connections, within a week of departure. Don't trust last year's article (or this one) for the current state of any specific airport. The rules move.

2. Pack conservatively by default. Assume the 100ml rule applies. If you arrive at a scanner-equipped lane and they wave the big bottle of sunscreen through, great. If you'd packed for 1L containers and your return airport hasn't upgraded, you're losing the sunscreen, the contact lens solution, and the local wine.

3. Plan for inconsistency within an airport. A terminal might have four security lanes, two with CT scanners and two without. Which lane you get is luck of the draw. Signage is usually posted at the lane entrance, so read it before you start unloading your bag.

4. Keep the quart bag. Even at scanner-equipped airports, having your liquids organized in a clear bag speeds up secondary screening if your bag gets flagged. It's still a useful habit.

5. Build buffer into connection times. Some scanner-equipped airports are slower than legacy X-ray lanes during the transition period because staff are still learning the new procedures and resolution alarms take longer to clear. Don't book a 45-minute connection through a terminal in transition.

6. Keep essentials in a small bag. A small carry-on essentials kit, including meds, a change of clothes, and a charger, should be packed assuming worst-case screening. Your prescription liquids are exempt from the 100ml rule under EU law, but you'll need to declare them.

A few related pieces worth bookmarking: trusted-traveler programs like TSA PreCheck vs Global Entry, NEXUS, and CLEAR don't change the liquid rules in Europe but speed up the rest of the security process on the US side. And if you're traveling to Europe in 2026, the ETIAS travel authorization is the other rule change to pay attention to.

Looking ahead

The realistic forecast: more airports will add scanners in 2026 and 2027, but the 100ml rule won't fully disappear from Europe before 2028 at the earliest. Some smaller airports may keep the legacy rule indefinitely if the upgrade math doesn't work for their passenger volumes.

The longer-term direction is still clear. CT scanning is the standard for new security investment globally, not just in Europe. The US is following the same path. Once a critical mass of airports has converted, the 100ml rule will become a niche restriction at a shrinking number of legacy lanes rather than the default rule of air travel.

Until then, pack like it's 2007 and treat any larger bottle that survives the scanner as a small win. Book flexible airfare through CheapOair so you're not stressed if a security delay puts your connection in jeopardy, and accept that for the next year or two, the answer to "can I bring this bottle on the plane in Europe?" is going to keep being "it depends on the airport, the terminal, the lane, and the day."

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