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Film at El Prat (BCN): CT scanners and hand checks

Barcelona, Spain · Europe

One airport from the airport CT scanner and hand-check guide: what is known about the scanners at security here, what travellers report when they ask for a hand check, and where each fact comes from.

Security scanners
CT at some lanes

CT scanners at some security lanes, conventional X-ray at others. You may not be able to tell which lane you are in.

Hand check for film
Sometimes

Hand checks for film are sometimes granted. Expect it to depend on the officer, and on the film speed.

Confidence
low

Low: rests on traveller reports, national guidance or older sources. Check the newest reports before you fly.

Last verified

CT rollouts are still under way, so check the date. A row can go stale within a season.

What the sources say

35 CT units across Terminals 1 and 2 as of mid-2026, mixed with conventional lanes; the 100 ml rule still applies. The 2025 reports predate most of that installation and describe an X-ray airport where even ISO 1600 film was forced through. Expect to escalate to a supervisor.

Sources

The scanner verdict rests on published statements: the airport, the security authority, or dated press reports of them. The hand-check verdict leans on traveller reports, most of them collected by Handcheckfilm, the larger crowdsourced database, which is worth checking for newer reports than ours.

Ask for a hand check

  1. Pack the film to be handed over. Every roll in one clear zip bag, out of boxes and foil, before you get to the lane. Loose rolls or rolls in canisters both work; officers swab the outside, and some will want the lid off.
  2. Ask before anything goes on the belt. Hold the bag up and say, or show on the card, that it is undeveloped film and you would like a hand inspection. Once it is on the belt it is going through.
  3. Say why in one sentence. The film makers say CT scanners fog undeveloped film at any speed. Most officers have heard it; the card says it in their language if they have not.
  4. If refused, ask once for a supervisor. Then accept the answer. Arguing at the lane does not produce hand checks, and it will not save the film.
  5. Exposed film is the fragile leg. Shot but undeveloped film shows CT damage more than fresh stock. If you can only win one hand check, win it on the way home, or get the film developed before you fly.
  6. Never put film in checked luggage. Hold-baggage scanners are higher-energy CT and fog film of any speed. This is the one rule every film maker agrees on.

The full advice for the lane is on the guide page.

Take the hand-check card

A bank-card-size note that asks the officer to hand-inspect your film, free to print. It is printed in ten languages, including Spanish for Spain.

Get the hand-check card

Report what you saw

Been through security at El Prat with film? Tell us the date, the terminal, the film (format and ISO), what you asked for and what the officer did. The entry will be checked, updated and re-dated. Reports to Handcheckfilm help every traveller too.

Report what you saw

Other airports in Europe

We make CANISTER 135, a steel canister for one roll of 35mm. It does not protect film from X-ray or CT scanners. Ask for the hand check either way.

All airports in the guide