Hello and welcome to today's independent travel podcast with me, Simon Calder.

It's Wednesday the 6th of August.

If you've been through an airport, whether in the UK or abroad, so far this summer, or if you're going to run,

this is going to concern you because it's all about the least favourite part of anybody's aviation journey going through the airport

security checkpoint. So, what is happening? Because it's getting more and more fragmented. And so to

get a proper understanding of it, I wanted to talk to Richard Thompson, who is Vice President

Portfolios, Innovation and Digital at Smith's Detection.

First of all, tell us what Smith's detection is and does.

We're primarily, as you say, an aviation security screening company,

although our mission, as they say, is to make the world a safer place.

So we have interests not just in airports, but in mission, as they say, is to make the world a safer place, so we have

interests not just in airports, but in prisons, hotel, stadia. It's all about getting the best

security outcome, primarily, but also trying to do that with the best efficiency, and as you've

highlighted, the best passenger experience. Okay, let me take you back to August 10, 2006, when suddenly overnight,

the liquids were not allowed at all.

After a few weeks, we were allowed to take liquids in-cabin baggage, but limited to 100

millilitres, and that covers everything from shampoo to, well, in my case, some very nice French cheese

which got confiscated at Lyon Airport.

And people who've been to airports recently have seen these gigantic machines which look like,

I don't know, huge freezers and your bag goes into it.

They're very helpful airport security people say,

oh, just leave your laptop in and your liquids in. Or they don't. And we went through a brief

...