Bletchleyite
Veteran Member
You generally don’t need to remove shoes in the UK unless they have a heel or have a large sole, or some sort of metal like a toecap.
Yes, this. The US has the "shoe carnival" (as they liked to call it on Flyertalk) for everyone, the UK and EU don't unless there is something that draws attention to the shoe. Very rarely indeed have I had to remove mine, other than in about the month after the "shoe bomber" incident.
I disagree as I've found the complete opposite to happen at all airports both in Europe and in the UK who have a common policy that regardless of being shoes or boots that they MUST go though the x-ray machine.
This is not the EU or UK policy. Do you have particularly large or metal-containing shoes, perhaps?