How One EU Announcement Killed Our AI App Launch

As someone who loves to travel, I know firsthand the adrenaline connected with discovering new places and cultures.

However, no matter how much I enjoy exploring the world, there’s always one thing that annoys me: dealing with the airports.

The 100 ml rule for carry-on liquids has been a hassle for years, and despite some recent technological advancements, keeping track of which airports are lifting restrictions—and which aren't—has been a nightmare.

That’s when Karol Horosin, a creative colleague I work with, came up with a cool idea: creating a website that tracks airport liquid regulations in real-time, while also offering essential airport information and helpful travel tips.

Check the website here:

https://airportregistry.com/

You might spot the missing details on liquid regulations. Keep on reading to find out why.

The history behind the 100 ml rule

The 100 ml rule has been around since 2006. It came into life after a major incident in the UK, where authorities uncovered a plot involving liquid explosives.

To go through the airport security, in your carry-on luggage, you can only bring liquids in containers no bigger than 100 ml (3.4 ounces), and all of them need to fit into a single quart-sized clear plastic bag. You're allowed just one bag per person, and the total amount of liquids can’t exceed 1 liter.

The introduction of new CT scanners was expected to finally put an end to the era of 100 ml travel-sized shampoo and soap bottles.

These advanced scanners, much like those used in hospitals, provide detailed 3D images of the contents inside luggage. They have the ability to rotate 360 degrees and zoom in for a closer inspection. Equipped with smart software, they can detect explosives, even in liquid form.

Months of work destroyed by EU regulations

So, the vision was clear: to create a simple, powerful platform that allowed travellers to easily check liquid limits at airports around the world.

The work was fully on: Karol was scraping data from sources like Wikipedia and gathering comprehensive details about the world’s busiest airports, Google Maps locations, airlines, and passenger traffic stats.

I was busy gathering liquid limit data, writing articles about the airports, and designing parts of the UI along the way.

As the launch approached, we connected with the online community, engaging on X and Product Hunt to gather feedback and refine the user experience.

Just as we were about to launch, the EU made a surprising announcement: major airports like Heathrow and Frankfurt would revert to the old 100 ml liquid restrictions, putting the brakes to the progress made with new CT scanners. The scanners that were supposed to be a game-changer, were making too many mistakes to be fully trusted, forcing airports to stick with the previous rules.

After months of research and hard work, it felt like all that effort had gone to waste, as the website’s key feature was now practically useless, leaving little choice but to quickly adapt and postpone the launch.

AI for data scrapping and fetching images

Throughout the project, AI played a crucial role, particularly in data scraping to gather essential information on over 150 airports.

By writing Python scripts, Karol successfully extracted valuable data from Wikipedia, including airport locations, airlines, and passenger traffic statistics.

Despite the challenges posed by the often-unstructured nature of Wikipedia's tables, he was able to create a solid database that served as the foundation for the project.

The entire process is documented in detail on his blog, which you can check out here.

In addition to data scraping, AI was also used to integrate the Unsplash API, enabling the website to automatically pull high-quality images for each airport.

This not only improved the site’s aesthetics but also provided travellers with visual context, making the information more relatable and engaging.

If you’re curious about the technical aspects behind this feature, you can dive into it here.

Launching anyway: a must-have tool for travellers

Even with the liquid limit tracking feature on hold, the website was launched anyway.

The platform still has a lot of useful information for travellers, making it a pity to let all that effort go to waste.

Whether you're looking for Google Maps locations of airports, details on which airlines fly there, or statistics on how busy an airport is, the website offers all of that in a sleek, easy-to-use format.

Plus, there’s a blog on the site filled with travel hacks to help make your journey smoother and more enjoyable.

This is just the beginning.

The site is live and open to feedback from travellers.

Users can stay updated with helpful blog posts, contribute to the site's development through feedback forms, and get all the essential information they need to make their travel experience smoother.

Our commitment to the platform is strong and we're focused on where it’s headed next.

We’re putting in the work, and we hope on your support along the way!

Check the website here:

https://airportregistry.com/