No escape from airport body scanners

Body scanners will be used in all three terminals at Manchester Airport by the end of this month.

More than 400,000 people have used the scanners since they were introduced on a trial basis in Terminal 2 last October.

A survey showed that 95 per cent of passengers thought the scanners were a significant improvement on the traditional pat down at security checkpoints.

Replacing pat-downs with scanners has reduced the amount of time each passenger spends being security screened from two minutes to 25 seconds.

Andrew Harrison, Manchester Airport’s managing director, said: “We began trialling a body scanner in 2009 because one of the most regular complaints from our passengers was about being patted down at security.

“Body scanners could solve this but we also knew that the technology was controversial which is why we embarked on a trial.

“Our passengers and staff tell us that they much prefer the experience of a body scanner because it is significantly quicker as it doesn’t involved being frisked nor does it require them to remove their coats, jackets and belts.

“We fully respect that a small number of people have reservations about body scanners on privacy or medical grounds but we have gone to great lengths to ensure the highest levels of privacy protection and expert studies have shown that the technology is safe.”

On Christmas Day, 2009, when an alleged terrorist incident on a US flight into Detroit was foiled, governments from all over the world began looking to body scanners as a new line of protection for air travellers.

In February, the government instructed airports already operating body scanners — Heathrow and Manchester — to make the technology compulsory.

Within the first four weeks, two female Muslim passengers became the first people to be refused travel after they declined to use the body scanner on religious grounds.

There have since been no refusals and the women have since visited the airport to better understand the privacy controls which they told airport staff has allayed their concerns.