Two women, one a Muslim, have become the first people to be barred from boarding a flight because they refused to go through a full-body airport scanner.
Manchester airport confirmed today that the women, who were booked to fly to Islamabad with Pakistan International Airlines, were told they could not get on the plane after they refused to be scanned for medical and religious reasons.
The women had been selected at random, said the airport.
The Muslim woman decided to forfeit her ticket and left her luggage at the airport. Her companion also left the airport saying she did not go through the scanner on medical grounds because she had an infection.
The full-body scanners were introduced at Manchester and Heathrow last month after the Christmas Day bombing attempt in Detroit. The £80,000 Rapiscan machines show a clear body outline and have been described by critics as the equivalent of "virtual strip searching".
While American transport authorities offer passengers a choice between going through the full-body scanner or going through a metal-arch scanner and a physical search, the British government has said that a refusal to go through the body scanner would bar passengers from boarding aircraft.
A Manchester airport spokeswoman said: "Two female passengers who were booked to fly out of Terminal 2 refused to be scanned for medical reasons and religious reasons. In accordance with the government directive on scanners, they were not permitted to fly.
"Body scanning is a big change for customers who are selected under the new rules and we are aware that privacy concerns are on our customers' minds, which is why we have strict procedures to reassure them that their privacy will be protected."
A group of Muslim-American scholars, the Fiqh Council of North America, last month argued that going through the scanners would violate Islamic rules of modesty because they expose people's private parts. The pope has also expressed concerns.
Heathrow airport has refused to comment on individual cases.