Gatwick liquid rules: the 2-litre era, explained

Since March 2026, both Gatwick terminals screen hand luggage with CT scanners that read a bag in three dimensions, and the liquids allowance built on them is simple: each container can hold up to 2 litres, it stays inside your bag, and there is no transparent-bag ritual and no limit on the number of containers beyond what the bag itself holds. Water, toiletries, cosmetics, drinks for the plane: if it fits in a container of 2 litres or less, it goes through. The scanners are also why laptops and tablets stay packed; the security guide covers the rest of the checkpoint.

The allowance has moved around enough that it pays to distrust old advice, including this page's own if you read it months from now. Six regional airports reached 2 litres in early June 2024, only for a government directive days later to order every UK airport back to 100ml while the scanners were assessed; the current allowances have been restored airport by airport since, with Heathrow switching in January 2026 and Gatwick in March. The rule printed here is Gatwick's current published one, and the airport's own security page is the place to confirm it the week you fly.

Everything you would expect, plus a few things people forget: drinks, creams, lotions, gels, pastes, sprays, aerosols, hairspray, toothpaste, and food that spreads or pours, from yoghurt and soft cheese to jam and honey. All of it now travels under the same 2-litre-per-container rule, so the old game of arguing whether hummus is a liquid is over at Gatwick; it is one, and it goes through anyway.

Three genuine catches survive. Metal and double-walled containers, which means steel water bottles and insulated flasks, defeat the scanners and must be emptied before security, then refilled airside. Frozen liquids cannot travel in hand luggage at all, whatever the size. And while powders and solid food are not liquids, the airport recommends packing food and powders in hold luggage where you can, because they blur the X-ray image and are the most common reason a bag diverts to a hand search. Nothing about the liquids change altered the banned-items list, which still lives on gov.uk.

The UK-wide exemptions that mattered so much in the 100ml era still exist, and they matter at Gatwick mainly because they follow you to airports that have not upgraded. Essential medicines, liquids for special dietary requirements, and baby food or baby milk are allowed up to 2 litres at every UK airport, including the ones still enforcing 100ml for everything else. At Gatwick itself these categories simply fall inside the general allowance, so there is no separate procedure to follow.

Practical advice unchanged by the scanners: keep medicines in their labelled packaging with the prescription or a doctor's note where you can, pack them in hand luggage rather than the hold in case the hold bag goes missing, and allow a few extra minutes at the checkpoint in case staff want a closer look. Parents travelling with milk and food for a baby get the same easy ride, with one hard exception: frozen is frozen, so frozen breast milk cannot pass the checkpoint and needs a hold-bag plan. The family lane and the rest of the with-children logistics are covered in the travelling with children guide.

The 2-litre allowance is Gatwick's, not your ticket's. Security rules apply at the airport you are departing from, so the outbound leg through Gatwick and the return leg from your holiday airport can run under different regimes, and usually do: most airports abroad still enforce 100ml containers in a clear bag, and so do several UK airports, including Manchester, Luton and Stansted at the time of writing. The full-size sun cream that sailed out of Gatwick gets confiscated in the return-leg tray if the airport at the other end has not upgraded.

The working rule is to pack for the stricter airport on your itinerary. If the return airport still runs 100ml, either keep cabin liquids to 100ml in both directions, plan to bin or check in the big containers before flying home, or put them in the hold from the start. It is worth flattening a one-litre resealable bag into your luggage too, since 100ml airports can still demand the clear-bag presentation. Two minutes on the return airport's security page before you pack beats improvising at their checkpoint.

Everything sold after security is past the checkpoint by definition, so airside purchases have never been bound by the container limit: full-size bottles of spirits, perfume and skincare from Gatwick duty free fly in the cabin as normal shopping. The rules that do apply are the aircraft's. Nothing over 70% ABV is allowed on board in any bag, and your airline decides how much you can physically carry on.

Connections are where airside shopping goes wrong. If you change planes and pass through security again, at Gatwick or anywhere else, a duty-free liquid over that airport's limit only survives the second screening if it is sealed in the security bag it was sold in, with the receipt sealed inside and visible, and the bag stays unopened until your final destination. Ask for the sealed bag at the till whenever a connection is involved, and keep it intact however tempting the contents. What you can bring back into the country afterwards is a different set of limits again, covered on the UK customs page.

Anything over 2 litres per container goes in hold luggage, where Gatwick sets no size limit on liquids, creams, gels and pastes. Two aviation-wide caps still apply in the hold. Aerosols are limited to 500ml per canister and 2 litres per person in total. Alcohol between 24% and 70% ABV is capped at 5 litres per person in sealed retail packaging, drinks over 70% ABV cannot fly at all, and anything under 24%, wine and beer included, has no dangerous-goods cap and is limited only by your baggage allowance and your willingness to carry it.

The practical constraint is usually weight rather than rules, since airline hold allowances run to fixed kilograms and liquid is heavy; the Gatwick baggage allowance guide has the airline-by-airline numbers, and the day-before bag drop covered in the check-in guide takes a heavy bag off your hands the evening before an early flight. For everything else the airport runs before and after the checkpoint, start at the services index.