As family and friends prepare to fly out to enjoy the Christmas season abroad, BAA is reminding passengers to pack carefully before coming to the airport. Cabin baggage rules still apply, therefore passengers should check to ensure any gifts or items they wish to carry on board are within the restrictions.
Liquids over 100ml are not allowed in cabin baggage so take care with: perfumes; toiletries, including bubble bath and body cream, and even bottles of luxury olive oil. Pre-packaged gift sets, such as those containing miniature bottles of alcohol, should be checked to ensure they don’t exceed the 100ml limit, otherwise pack them in hold luggage. Similarly cosmetic sets shouldn’t contain any gels or pastes that are over the allowed limit; even manicure sets need to be checked to make sure there are no sharp items such as nail scissors or tweezers.
Passengers are also advised that it would be better to leave wrapping gifts until they land at their destination. Although wrapping is not disallowed, hold and cabin luggage may have to be searched by hand, and gifts would then need to be unwrapped. Passengers are also reminded not to carry wrapped items on behalf of other people.
Homemade jams and chutneys need to be within the 100ml limit, and bottles of wine or champagne should be packed in hold luggage. Passengers also need to take care with novelty Christmas gifts.
Ian Hutcheson, BAA Security Director says: “We want to ensure the security process is as efficient as possible, and so we’re advising passengers to check the hand baggage restrictions before they come to the airport. It would be a shame if a carefully chosen gift had to be left behind.
”Throughout 2008 the security operation across Heathrow has been very efficient, with queue times remaining under five minutes most of the time and rarely exceeding ten minutes. We hope to end the year with everyone travelling through the airport as smoothly as possible.”
Christmas is always a busy time at Heathrow Airport, between Friday 19 December and Wednesday 24 December this year, over one mission passengers will use the airport. Heathrow’s most popular destinations are: New York (JFK), Dublin and Paris (CDG).
