TSA considers letting PreCheck members keep full water bottles at security checkpoints

Quick summary

TSA is weighing a water-bottle exemption for TSA PreCheck members at security lanes equipped with advanced CT scanners — a change that would let vetted travelers carry full water bottles through select U.S. checkpoints without surrendering them. TSA Administrator David Cummins has confirmed the agency is actively studying the proposal. The 3.4-ounce rule stays in place for all other liquids and for non-PreCheck travelers, and no participating airports or launch date have been announced.

The exemption would cover water only — not toiletries, wine, or other beverages. Whether your home airport even has CT-equipped PreCheck lanes is the variable that will determine whether any of this affects your trip.

Twenty years after the August 2006 liquid bomb plot reshaped airport security worldwide, the TSA is edging toward its first meaningful rollback of carry-on liquid rules — but only for a slice of travelers, and only where the hardware exists to support it.

TSA Administrator David Cummins confirmed in September 2026 that the agency is considering allowing TSA PreCheck members to carry full water bottles through checkpoints equipped with Analogic ConneCT CT scanners. The exemption would apply to water only. Every other liquid — toiletries, wine, juice, anything that isn’t water — stays subject to the 3.4-ounce (100-milliliter) limit that has governed U.S. carry-on screening since late 2006.

The proposal is real, but the fine print matters. No airports have been named. No timeline has been set. And the benefit is structurally uneven: PreCheck lanes sometimes close or merge with standard lanes, which would push even enrolled travelers back into the old rules the moment staffing shifts.

For the roughly 20 million Americans enrolled in PreCheck, this is the most significant potential checkpoint change in years. For everyone else, nothing changes yet.

What the CT scanner rollout actually looks like

The water-bottle proposal lives or dies on scanner infrastructure — and that infrastructure is still being built. TSA has committed serious money to the transition: contracts with Analogic worth approximately $198 million in 2021 and up to $781.2 million in 2022 cover hundreds of CT checkpoint units, and a further procurement announced in April 2023 added up to $1.3 billion more for base, mid-size, and full-size systems. The TSA’s April 2023 procurement announcement described the expanded contract as part of a long-term plan to make CT the default checkpoint technology rather than a niche upgrade.

By March 2023, 287 of 313 scheduled mid-size Analogic units had already been installed nationwide, with full completion of that tranche targeted for November 2023. But mid-size units are one category among several — base-size and full-size systems are on separate deployment schedules — and not every installed scanner sits in a PreCheck lane. The result is a patchwork: some airports have CT-equipped PreCheck lanes today, others don’t, and the gap won’t close uniformly.

That uneven rollout is precisely why the policy is being designed as a two-tier system. CT scanners use 3D imaging and automated explosive-detection algorithms to analyze liquid density and composition inside sealed containers — capabilities that legacy 2D X-ray machines simply don’t have. PreCheck lanes at CT-equipped airports become the test bed; standard lanes stay bound to the small-bottle rule.

The idea itself isn’t new. In November 2014, former TSA administrator John Pistole publicly called for exempting PreCheck passengers from liquid restrictions — a proposal that went nowhere at the time. The difference now is that the scanner hardware is actually in the field, and an administrator is confirming the agency is actively revisiting it.

For travelers planning flights from North America that include a U.S. domestic leg, the practical question is whether your departure airport has CT-equipped PreCheck lanes — and whether those lanes will be staffed and open on your travel day.

London City ran this experiment first — here’s what happened

London City Airport offers the clearest real-world data point. In April 2023, after completing a full CT scanner rollout across its security area, the airport scrapped the 100ml limit entirely — allowing passengers to carry containers of up to two litres through screening while also eliminating the requirement to remove laptops and liquids from bags. According to Business Traveller’s follow-up reporting, the airport recorded a 50 percent reduction in security queue times in the year after the change.

That outcome matters for the U.S. debate, but the comparison has limits. London City went all-in: full deployment, all passengers, no tiered system. TSA’s approach is the opposite — a narrow exemption for vetted travelers at a subset of lanes, with the broader population untouched. The infrastructure gap explains the difference. TSA has signaled that universal CT coverage across U.S. airports could be decades away, which is why the agency is threading the needle with a PreCheck-only pilot rather than a system-wide rule change.

Risk-based screening is the underlying logic here. PreCheck members have already cleared background checks and are subject to random additional screening — so concentrating the relaxed rules on that population is consistent with how TSA has approached trusted-traveler benefits since the program launched. Water bottles are the most visible friction point, but the same CT-enabled logic could eventually apply to other liquids if the pilot data supports it.

Steps to take before this policy goes live

No pilot has launched yet, and TSA has not named a single participating airport — so the window between now and any formal announcement is the time to position yourself to benefit from day one.

• Confirm your airport’s scanner status: Check your departure airport’s security page or TSA’s airport information tool to see whether CT-equipped PreCheck lanes are listed. Dallas/Fort Worth was the first U.S. airport to receive Analogic CT units back in November 2017; major hubs have generally been prioritized in subsequent rollouts.
• Enroll in PreCheck if you haven’t: The exemption is PreCheck-exclusive. Non-members won’t qualify regardless of which airport they use. Applications go through TSA’s PreCheck enrollment page; approval typically takes two to three weeks.
• Don’t assume the lane will be open: PreCheck lanes close during low-traffic periods and can be consolidated with standard lanes. Even at CT-equipped airports, a closed PreCheck lane means the 3.4-ounce rule applies to you that day — plan accordingly.
• Water only, nothing else: The proposed exemption covers water and water alone. Full-sized toiletries, wine, juice, and other beverages remain barred. Packing a reusable water bottle and refilling it airside remains the reliable fallback until TSA formally announces pilot locations.
• International legs are unaffected: This is a U.S. domestic checkpoint policy. Liquid rules at non-U.S. airports — including connections through Asia-Pacific hubs — are governed by local authorities and remain unchanged.

Watch: TSA’s formal announcement of pilot airport locations will be the signal that the program is operational. Until that announcement appears on TSA.gov, treat the water-bottle exemption as proposed, not active.

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