Liquids on board and 5G: soon relaxed rules?

Air travel comes with a certain number of constraints related to security measures, sometimes more or less well understood by passengers. It also happens that some of these constraints are taken in a provisional way the time to better understand a new phenomenon and that the provisional becomes permanent…

But if we are used to temporary measures that last (at one point it was even questioned that the mask remains mandatory in flight forever even ifplanes is be one of the safest places regarding the spread of viruses) it happens, more rarely, that restrictions end up being removed and this is what seems to be on the horizon for two subjects.

No more restrictions on liquids on board in the UK

The UK plans to remove restrictions on liquids on board within two years, made possible by the adoption of new 3D scanners (CT Scans or Tomodensitometry) that allow for more thorough inspection.

As a result, passengers will no longer be required to remove liquids from their luggage for security checks and will be allowed to carry the equivalent of 2 liters in the cabin.

Remember that the current restrictions (containers of up to 100ml in a single transparent, resealable plastic bag, with a maximum capacity of one liter and measuring approximately 20cm by 20cm) date back to 2006 when terrorists took hydrogen peroxide in bottles to blow up planes.

But contrary to popular belief, this is not a one-size-fits-all regulation: each country is free to do what it wants with liquids, although in the end many have aligned themselves with the strictest approach. For example if you go to Dubai you will see that you will be free to take all the liquids you want in the cabin and some countries do not impose any limit for domestic flights (Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand…).

In the United States in airports equipped with the new scanners and in some airports like Amsterdam it is no longer necessary to take liquids out of your bag. In Amsterdam it is also no longer necessary to take out electronic devices.

Note that in the UK, once the new scanners are in place, there will be no need to take out electronic devices either.

A decision that only affects the United Kingdom, but we can’t help but think that this is only the beginning of a more global movement that will simplify and fluidify the controls while maintaining a high level of security.

5G calls allowed on board in Europe

The European Union announced this week that it will allow large-scale deployment of 5G services on aircrafts and this thanks to a special equipment, called “pico-cell”, to connect users and route calls, texts and data, usually via a satellite network, between the aircraft and the mobile network on the ground.

According to the European Commission, “5G will bring innovative services to people and growth opportunities to European businesses. The sky’s the limit when it comes to the possibilities of superfast, high-capacity connectivity.

While this should eventually allow airlines to offer full use of 5G in flight, this is not the case on the other side of the Atlantic, where the US Federal Communications Commission has reported strong opposition from pilots and flight crews for reasons of safety and national security.

Bottom line

Initiatives aimed at smoothing the airport experience and giving passengers maximum comfort in using their electronic devices in flight, while local, are becoming more and more numerous.

It can be expected that they will spread and that in the near future passing through security checks will no longer be a waste of time and a stress factor and that 5G will be freely used in flight.

Photo : calls in flight by ImYanis via Shutterstock

Bertrand Duperrin
Bertrand Duperrinhttp://www.duperrin.com
Compulsive traveler, present in the French #avgeek community since the late 2000s and passionate about (long) travel since his youth, Bertrand Duperrin co-founded Travel Guys with Olivier Delestre in March 2015.
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