UKs Cabin Bag Limit: At the Airport Operations Association’s annual conference (14 September 2007)  Secretary of State for Transport  Ruth Kelly  has announced that restrictions in the UK limiting passengers to one cabin bag each is set to be scrapped as early as January, but has cautioned that airports would still need to prove they could maintain existing security levels.

“We were clear from the beginning this was a temporary arrangement – and that the one-bag rule would change once the industry had demonstrated its ability to screen passengers and bags to an acceptable standard,” she said.

 “We are inviting each airport to submit plans to TranSec (Transport Security) to take advantage of new technology, operational innovations and unexploited capacity in the system to make a real difference to passengers as soon as possible.”

With the increased work load that airport security staff will be put under (because of more cabin bags to check), airports would need to prove they can maintain current levels of airline safety thru the use of either improved technology or increased staff.

This move welcomed by The Business Travel Guru, but time will tell as we are yet to see any airports receive early approval from TranSec.