Recently, we saw the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) update its policy on passengers wearing shoes. Specifically, the TSA is no longer requiring passengers to remove their shoes, including for those passengers without TSA PreCheck.
Arguably one of the other pain points of the security experience when flying involves limits on the liquids you can carry onboard aircraft. As other countries increasingly move toward easing those restrictions, could that also be the case in the United States?
The TSA was planning on maintaining liquids restrictions
If you’ve traveled within the United States, you’re probably familiar with the “3-1-1” rule from the TSA, whereby passengers are limited in terms of the number of liquids, gels, and aerosols, that they can take in their carry-on bags. Each passenger can take up to one quart-size bag of these items, with no liquids being in containers of more than 3.4 ounces (or 100 milliliters).
These restrictions have been in place since 2006, and while they were initially described as temporary, they’re still in place, nearly 20 years later.
In some parts of the world, we’re slowly seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. For example, the UK is planning on lifting current liquids restrictions in the not-too-distant future, coinciding with the full rollout of new security scanners.
Roughly a year ago, a TSA spokesperson claimed that we shouldn’t expect the same in the United States, claiming that liquids restrictions would likely remain in place until 2040, coinciding with the full rollout of new scanners:
“TSA is still deploying Computed Tomography (CT) units that are capable of screening larger sizes of liquids, however the agency will not be able to change the current 3-1-1 liquids rule for some time to come, because there are about 2,000 screening lanes in about 430 airports. We are anticipating that it may not be until 2040 that we have CT units fully deployed across the nation and have the capability of changing the requirement across the system.”
So yeah, according to that, the liquids restrictions may eventually be lifted, but it would be another 15 years or so until new scanners are rolled out nationwide. I of course get that the US has so many airports and that replacing all of the scanners takes a lot of time, but that seems like an especially long timeline.
Government now considering lifting liquids restrictions
It would appear that the recent change in policies for wearing shoes at security was driven from higher up, by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. With a new administration in office, what does that mean for traveling with liquids?
Well, in a recent interview, Noem said “the day I walked in the door, I started questioning everything TSA does,” adding that “I will tell you, I mean, the liquids I am questioning.” She stated that “maybe the next big announcement is what size your liquids need to be,” and that they’re “looking at it.”
So, we’ll see if anything comes of this, but it certainly sounds like the Trump administration wants to make changes there…
Bottom line
As of last year, the TSA was planning on maintaining its current liquids restrictions for carry-on bags until 2040, coinciding with the rollout of new scanners. However, with a new administration being in office, it seems that they’re looking at lifting these restrictions sooner.
Just as we’ve seen restrictions on taking off shoes eliminated, maybe we’ll also see changes to the liquids policy. The Homeland Security Secretary is suggesting this might be the next big announcement, so let’s see how this plays out.
What do you make of the TSA potentially easing liquids restrictions?
