Originally Posted by
SpeedbirdLHR
the UK have set standards for airport security and these must be complied with. It indeed add lots of value as everyday, customers transferring from other countries are stopped with items that are not allowed. Using the USA as an example of security isn't advisable. The current system ensures that everyone flying from a UK airport should have been screened to the same standard that is governed and monitored by the UK government. Similarly if I were to transfer through the USA, I would need to undergo the TSA search.
I don't know why the UK has to be so different to the rest of europe. Here transfers between european flights do not need security screening again. Only arrivals from outside the EU have to be screened before transfer to another flight. This makes 30 min connections in places like MUC regularly possible.
Even transfers to non-schengen countries (like the UK) can be done with just a passport check - although airports vary in their success with this. At MUC the airport is correctly laid out (non schengen EU arrivals don't mix with non EU arrivals) but at FRA the UK arrivals mix with non-schengen arrivals and so must be (needlessly) security screened again.