The Scotsman Bulletin Tuesday April 29 2025 #Transport
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00:01Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Video Bulletin for this Tuesday.
00:05My name is Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor at the Scotsman and I'm joined by transport correspondent Alistair Dalton.
00:12Slightly different format today, we're coming to you from our office in Edinburgh.
00:17But before we talk about things to do with Edinburgh Airport, Alistair, I want to speak about the front page of today's Scotsman.
00:25And we led on some comments from INEOS boss, Jim Ratcliffe, basically saying the carbon tax is squeezing the life out of industry.
00:35He was making some warnings around what the impact is going to be on business.
00:40We obviously know the stake and the involvement in and around Grangemouth and that this is extremely topical at the moment.
00:48It also comes with the STUC Congress taking place in Dundee.
00:53Our Deputy Political Editor, David Boll, who has written this article, is up there as well.
00:59He was listening to Anis Salwa today.
01:01So there is a big push from unionists around looking after industry throughout this process at the moment.
01:09And Sir Jim Ratcliffe's comments were significant and are leading the paper today.
01:15You also see the picture on the front page obviously referencing those rare and almost unprecedented widespread blackouts across Spain and Portugal that took place yesterday.
01:26Alistair, there's also a story, I know you weren't on personally covering yesterday, but you'll be well aware of this technology that was originally scheduled to be in place across UK airports as of July last year.
01:41But finally, a significant update there.
01:43Can you talk us through?
01:44Yes, so Edinburgh, that's Scotland's busiest airport, has announced that it is now fully deployed.
01:50These new scanners, much more sophisticated devices, which the key advantage is that passengers will no longer have to take their liquids out of their bags or their electrical equipment like laptops and tablets.
02:09Edinburgh has increased the number of security lanes by two to eight.
02:14The first of these was introduced in April last year and it's incrementally increased these over the last few months.
02:21And it says this will speed up passengers going through the security area.
02:28They say that 97% of passengers get through within 10 minutes.
02:35And we've just checked a few minutes ago, it was four minutes of the light, although relatively quiet, quiet period.
02:41Now, other airports have already introduced this.
02:45Aberdeen has fully introduced these new scanners in Glasgow.
02:49It says it's at an advanced stage.
02:52However, the big change is still to come and that's where passengers will be able to no longer be restricted to liquids in bottles of up to 100 millilitres, which is pretty small.
03:07This is something that the UK government introduced about a year ago and then they reintroduced the restrictions in summer of last year.
03:16And we still yet to hear when those restrictions will be lifted again, which will be much more significant.
03:23Now, Alistair, just an anecdotal case from myself late last year, was travelling with the family, went to Edinburgh Airport.
03:30They were trialling one of these new scanners at the time and their family were directed to that lane.
03:35At the instruction, we kept liquids in the bag inside our backpack.
03:41They were under 100 millilitres, they weren't above.
03:44But the bag still went into the wrong lane where it needed to be checked and there was the subsequent delay.
03:50Now, why would that have happened and has that been a consistent issue at all?
03:54And what will be the experience of people going through now?
03:57Yeah, Edinburgh Airport said there has been a slight increase in the number of these cases.
04:02And this is because the machine is having to work out how close you are to the 100 millilitre level.
04:10And that when the limit does increase to a litre or two litres, there will be much more leeway.
04:17It won't be such an issue.
04:18So that may be something that people will continue to have to look at.
04:23There's a couple of other things to say that even though Edinburgh has now these new scanners, not all UK airports will have them.
04:30So when you're returning from wherever you've gone, you may still need to take your liquids and your electrical equipment out.
04:36However, Edinburgh has been very bullish about how good they're going to be at this.
04:41They said last year they didn't think anyone was doing so well in terms of getting passengers through security quickly.
04:49And the new owners of French group Vanshee have sort of said this is a key thing that they know that low cost airlines, particularly like Ryanair,
04:58Edinburgh's biggest airline, is really keen to get their passengers through.
05:03Surprise, surprise. They don't want any delays.
05:05And the joint owners of the airport have even said they want Edinburgh to be the best in the world for security.
05:12So let's see what happens this summer.
05:14Just one other anecdotal tip that I was giving by security staff during that encounter.
05:19If you have a tablet and you're advised to keep it inside your bag, don't put it next to a book.
05:24Separate them because that is something that could flag up on the scanners and mean your bag doesn't successfully get through.
05:30So if you are packing, just keep that in mind.
05:33There's been plenty happening on the transport scene recently as well.
05:38We ran a story on Washington DC flights being expanded into some of the winter months by United.
05:45Another step towards Edinburgh boasting its title as Scotland's biggest airport and adding to the suite of flights that are taking place to America each year.
05:56You can read the stories that we've discussed at scotsman.com.
06:00Just follow the transport tab in the navigation bar and you'll read all the latest from Alistair and the rest of the team as well.
06:09Please follow us on all social media channels, including Facebook, and we are on Blue Sky as well.
06:16Then go ahead and pick up a copy of the paper tomorrow.
06:19Tomorrow we'll have all the very latest, including a key report coming to the Scottish Parliament around assisted dying.
06:27Thanks to you, Alistair, and thanks everyone else for joining us.
06:29Thanks for having me on these.
06:30Thanks for having me on these.
06:31Thanks for having me on these.
06:32Bye!
06:33Bye!
06:34Bye!