Airport liquid rules in 2026: which airports actually allow more than 100ml

Heathrow allows two litres of liquid through security. Manchester, an hour up the M6, still caps you at 100 milliliters. Both airports have newer scanners installed, both rules are current as of September 2026, and the hardware isn't what decides the limit. Whether the airport has actually raised it is.

That gap matters most on the trip nobody thinks of as complicated: fly out through one airport, connect through a second, and come home through a third. Pack a full size toiletry bag because your outbound airport allows it, and the identical bag can get pulled and binned at a stricter airport on the way back. The fix isn't complicated. Knowing which airport you're actually packing for is.

Who this actually applies to

This applies to you if you're flying through, connecting through, or returning through any UK airport, or through any US airport, regardless of whether a CT scanner is sitting in the lane. It applies twice over if your outbound and return airports aren't the same one.

• You're flying out of, into, or connecting through one of the twelve UK airports checked in this guide
• Your outbound and return flights use different airports, even within the same country
• You're flying anywhere in the US and assuming a CT scanner means a bigger allowance
• You're buying duty free liquids at one airport with another security check still ahead of you

If TSA lines are already the hard part of your trip, our airport survival guide covers what else has changed at US checkpoints this year.

What actually changed, and what didn't

Two different things are happening at once, and mixing them up is the single biggest way this topic gets reported wrong. In the US, new scanners changed how liquids get screened, not how much you can carry. In parts of the UK, the same kind of scanner upgrade changed the actual limit. The scanner is not the limit. Never has been.

TSA's own liquids page puts it plainly: containers over 3.4 ounces, 100 milliliters, still don't fly in a carry on. TSA's July 2026 announcement for Juneau's new CT lanes says passengers screened there "do not need to remove their travel sized 3-1-1 liquids," the same line TSA uses at every CT rollout. The same lanes also let you leave laptops and other electronics in place, which matters if you're already checking which power banks are still flight approved for the cabin. None of it touches the 100ml cap itself.

Heathrow is the opposite story. Its own security page states you can carry containers of up to two litres through Terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5, a real increase, not a convenience. Heathrow's rollout finished on 23 January 2026. Gatwick and Edinburgh have since confirmed the same 2 litre cap directly on their own pages. Birmingham, Bristol, Belfast International and Belfast City are reported at the same cap by multiple current sources, but none of those four airports' own pages could be reached to confirm it directly this month.

We'd treat "this airport has new scanners" as meaningless until its own page names a container size in writing, because the hardware alone doesn't tell you which of the two changes actually happened here.

Photo: User:Mattes · CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

What you have to do before you pack

Check the actual rule for every airport on your route, not just the one you're flying out of. That means your outbound airport, any connection, and your return airport separately, since all three can run different limits on the same trip.

Nobody enjoys reading an airport's own security page. This is the one time it earns the five minutes.

Photo: Pop9000 · CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Which airports currently allow more than 100ml

Seven of the twelve major UK airports checked for this guide now allow up to 2 litres. Three of them, Heathrow, Gatwick and Edinburgh, are confirmed directly against the airport's own page. The other four are reported at the same limit by multiple current sources, without a direct confirmation this month. At least one more UK airport outside this guide's twelve, Bournemouth, is also widely reported to have moved to 2 litres. The other five checked here, plus every US airport regardless of scanner, still cap you at 100ml per container.

Look at the "remove from bag" column. It reads no, all the way down, at both 2 litre and 100ml airports. That's the finding this guide is built around: the unpacking convenience reached every airport on this list months before the actual limit changed at any of them, and at five of the twelve, the limit still hasn't changed at all.

The exceptions people get wrong

So the mixed itinerary is where this rule actually costs people something. Fly out of a 2 litre airport, connect through a 100ml one, and the full size bottle you packed for the first leg gets pulled at the second. That's the whole trap.

Connections are the clearest case. Gov.uk's own guidance puts it bluntly: "The rules for taking liquids through security in your hand luggage have changed at some UK airports. Check with the airport before you travel." That's the UK government telling you, directly, that there's no single national answer anymore. This is separate from cabin bag size, which airlines have been tightening on their own commercial terms in 2026 even as the European Parliament separately approved a guaranteed free personal item across the EU on 7 July 2026, for a 2027 start. Two different timelines, and neither one touches the liquid limit at security.

Duty free is the second trap. Buy a bottle after security at a 2 litre airport and it usually travels home in a sealed, tamper evident bag that survives one more security check. It doesn't always survive two. A second connection, or a route through an airport that doesn't recognize the sealed bag, can mean the same bottle gets confiscated at the next checkpoint.

We'd skip buying anything at a connecting airport that you can't finish before your next flight, since the sealed bag guarantee only reliably covers one more checkpoint, not several.

And the outbound versus return question is really the whole article in one line: pack for the strictest airport on your route, not the one you happen to be flying out of first.

We'd pack for the return airport's rule over the outbound one by default. A confiscated bottle costs you a few dollars at security, not the flight itself, but it's still an avoidable way to end a trip.

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Takeaways

Sources

Checked directly against most of the pages below on 17 September 2026. Where an airport's own page could not be reached that day (noted in the table above), the entry instead rests on multiple converging current sources. Airport liquid limits change airport by airport, and this table needs a re-check every few months, not just when a headline announces the 100ml rule is dead.

• TSA: Liquids, Aerosols and Gels Rule, official TSA policy page
• TSA press release: CT screening installed at Juneau, 13 July 2026
• Heathrow: Hand baggage and liquids, official airport policy page
• Heathrow press release: CT rollout complete, 23 January 2026
• Gatwick Airport: Security screening, official policy page
• Edinburgh Airport: 100ml liquid rule lifted, official announcement
• Birmingham Airport: Liquid restrictions, official policy page
• Bristol Airport: Security, official policy page
• Belfast International Airport: Hand luggage, official policy page
• George Best Belfast City Airport: FAQs, official policy page
• Manchester Airport: Security guide, official policy page, last updated April 2026
• Stansted Airport: Security, official policy page
• London Luton Airport: Liquid limits, official policy page
• Glasgow Airport: Security FAQs, official policy page
• Liverpool John Lennon Airport: Security, official policy page
• GOV.UK: Hand luggage restrictions, liquids, UK government guidance
• GOV.UK: Hand luggage restrictions, UK government guidance
• Which?: Airport liquid rules, 23 January 2026
• Travel Weekly: Why restrictions remain on liquids in cabin bags, 14 August 2025