X-ray machines that make it easier to detect explosives and liquids in passenger hand-luggage were introduced in 2007.

The work is part of a £20m project that will eventually see the replacement of all current machines across BAA's seven UK airports from March 2008.

The state-of-the-art system, called Advanced Threat Identification X-ray or aTiX, is designed to combat terrorism and speed up the journey times for passengers through the airport.

Based on the technology for screening hold-luggage, aTiX looks at the contents of carry-on bags from many angles in contrast to a single picture of a typical X-ray.

This project continues our work, first begun in January 2007, which saw an increase in the size and capacity of our security search area, which was later followed by the installation of this new technology.

Stansted to expand security search area (15 January 2007)