AIR passengers face continuing uncertainty over exactly what they can carry on aircraft because of a dispute between the Government and airport operators over proposals to relax the current restrictions.

Douglas Alexander, the Transport Secretary, met airline and airport representatives yesterday to discuss his plan to increase the minimum baggage size and allow musicians to take their instruments into the cabin. He also wants passengers to be allowed to take small amounts of liquid, such as contact lens fluid and toothpaste, through security checks in a separate clear plastic bag.

BAA, which owns Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, is willing to accept larger pieces of luggage and musical instruments but believes its screening system would struggle to cope with thousands of additional bags containing liquids.

Mr Alexander still plans to announce a revision to security rules either today or tomorrow, but may have to delay his plan to relax the complete ban on liquid. The new rules on baggage size are expected to be introduced by the end of the week.

BAA argues that other security requirements will have to be relaxed to make up for the extra workload. Since the alert last month, airports have hand-searched half of all passengers, twice as many as before. Passengers are waiting more than half an hour at security checks in Heathrow peak periods.

A BAA source said: “We need a regime which does not add to the burden on staff. We need some form of alleviation if they are to cope with all the plastic bags containing liquids.”

But the source said that the company was in favour of allowing larger bags back on board because this would reduce the number of bags being rejected at the security gates.

There was also confusion last night about whether the new maximum hand baggage size would match the internationally recognised standard. The current maximum dimensions, introduced five weeks ago, are 45cm x 35cm x 16cm (18in x 14in x 6in).

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