Transport Security, CBP Inspection, and State Alcohol Laws

[adamj023]

I noticed that some airports like Boston Logan international are still presecurity for some connection flights. They are working on the post security connector from Terminal B to C now as the connector from C to E was already done. Having post security connections saves a lot of time for those who only are in the airports to connect to other flights.

Which airports are post security or will be soon post security for connection flights?

 

[Exvalley]

Which airports are post security or will be soon post security for connection flights?

For major hubs? Just thinking off the top of my head - Atlanta and Dallas are.

Not Chicago or New York JFK.

 

[BCL]

Seattle. All the terminals (including the island ones) are linked through their three underground train systems post security. The island terminals don't even have their own security. Many advise checking which security line has the shortest wait and then just get to the terminal via the train. I figured this out when I tried to hit the United Club with my AGR Select Plus membership back in 2015. If I had to leave and check in I wouldn't have been able to enter unless maybe they let me back in with a call to the club.

SFO and OAK all have some terminals linked together, although there may be a lot of walking. Oakland is only two terminals, but they have this walkway that links them together.

https://www.flysfo.com/media/press-...tween-terminals-sfo-just-got-whole-lot-easier

 

[AmtrakBlue]

PHL (Philadelphia) - all terminals are accessible post security

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Post security is an odd way of writing this. When I enter an airport I'm "post security" when boarding an aircraft but I'm also "post security" when I'm done arriving from an international flight. And what's a pre-security connection? I would say airside connections between terminals to be clear. My question is why does the US not allow international airside connections or employ international exit screening? Are these two facts related?

 

[adamj023]

For major hubs? Just thinking off the top of my head - Atlanta and Dallas are.

Not Chicago or New York JFK.

La Guardia is being redone except the Marine terminal. The Marine terminal seems like its migrating to Spirit and charter jets and private jets leave from there. Jetblue will eventually move Boston to terminal B so it will have all connections in one place. Marine terminal will have different security. Terminal B is all integrated for security. I don’t know if Delta will be integrated with single security once its new terminal is done so you could transfer between B and C post security or not but most connections will be on same alliance partners so all Delta will be in the same place for connections and Jetblue and AA or United and Air Canada also together. Canada flights are preclearance.

 

[Exvalley]

Post security is an odd way of writing this. When I enter an airport I'm "post security" when boarding an aircraft but I'm also "post security" when I'm done arriving from an international flight.

It was quite obvious what the OP meant. They were looking for airports where you do not have to exit the airside area and then re-clear TSA security when you transfer to a connecting flight.

 

[jis]

Whether you are airside or not after exiting the international arrival processing center differs from airport to airport and even terminal to terminal at the same airport.

 

[DCAKen]

Washington National (DCA) just reconfigured its security checkpoints so that all the terminals in the main building (directly accessible from the metro) are behind security. Terminal A (serving Air Canada, Frontier, and Southwest) is still separate and requires re-clearing security.

 

[BCL]

Post security is an odd way of writing this. When I enter an airport I'm "post security" when boarding an aircraft but I'm also "post security" when I'm done arriving from an international flight. And what's a pre-security connection? I would say airside connections between terminals to be clear. My question is why does the US not allow international airside connections or employ international exit screening? Are these two facts related?

Every airport I've been to in the United States forces arriving international passengers to go through customs first. Always just blocked off where passengers can't go straight into the terminal like with a domestic flight. And I've departed and arrived on a domestic flight at an "international" terminal. For some reason, Alaska Airlines used the international terminal at SFO for its domestic flights, and I've taken domestic flights where the plane arrived from another country and they didn't reposition the plane at a domestic terminal.

 

[adamj023]

La Guardia is running a post security bus transfer for Delta terminal till new terminal is ready. They say 7 minute bus ride. Lots of airport construction is ongoing and seems to be getting better over time but still not ideal.

 

[daybeers]

I now only fly when it's crossing an ocean, and otherwise have only flown domestically for four segments, so this is fascinating to me. It amazes me passengers sometimes have to go through security checks again just to change planes!

 

[jis]

I now only fly when it's crossing an ocean, and otherwise have only flown domestically for four segments, so this is fascinating to me. It amazes me passengers sometimes have to go through security checks again just to change planes!

At many US airports you have to go through security check in order to transfer from an international arrival to a domestic departure.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Every airport I've been to in the United States forces arriving international passengers to go through customs first. Always just blocked off where passengers can't go straight into the terminal like with a domestic flight. And I've departed and arrived on a domestic flight at an "international" terminal. For some reason, Alaska Airlines used the international terminal at SFO for its domestic flights, and I've taken domestic flights where the plane arrived from another country and they didn't reposition the plane at a domestic terminal.

Some airports have international arrival terminals but to the best of my knowledge almost any terminal can support international departures.

I now only fly when it's crossing an ocean, and otherwise have only flown domestically for four segments, so this is fascinating to me. It amazes me passengers sometimes have to go through security checks again just to change planes!

Whoops, I misunderstood your meaning, disregard.

At many US airports you have to go through security check in order to transfer from an international arrival to a domestic departure.

Are there any homeland airports where this is not the case? Announcements and arrival paperwork make it seem like a universal requirement.

 

[daybeers]

At many US airports you have to go through security check in order to transfer from an international arrival to a domestic departure.

Right, I can understand that, but the terminals not being connected post-security for domestic connections is interesting. Does this happen often in other airports around the world?

 

[jis]

Right, I can understand that, but the terminals not being connected post-security for domestic connections is interesting. Does this happen often in other airports around the world?

I don't know about often since it is a relative term, but it is not particularly unheard of I would say. There are even cases where different terminal buildings are miles apart.

Some airports have international arrival terminals but to the best of my knowledge almost any terminal can support international departures.

That is my understanding too.

Are there any homeland airports where this is not the case? Announcements and arrival paperwork make it seem like a universal requirement.

None that I have passed through but then I have passed through only a small proportion of airports with international arrivals.

 

[Exvalley]

There are two issues here with international arrivals:
1) Clearing immigration/customs;
2) Exiting the airside section of the terminal even if connecting to another flight.

All airports require you to do the former. Not all airports require you to do the latter.

 

[jis]

And then there are weird places like United's Terminal C in IAD which has a CBP facility and you cannot really go anywhere upon exiting it except into airside of the terminal. But the only way to get there is by crossing a TSA barrier.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Right, I can understand that, but the terminals not being connected post-security for domestic connections is interesting. Does this happen often in other airports around the world?

Many airports have disconnected terminals but usually work around this with an airside tram or bus. Keep in mind that not many countries have the vast domestic network seen in the US so direct comparisons are limited.

And then there are weird places like United's Terminal C in IAD which has a CBP facility and you cannot really go anywhere upon exiting it except into airside of the terminal. But the only way to get there is by crossing a TSA barrier.

I'm surprised people with no connection would tolerate an extra security check just for the heck of it. Even worst-in-class IAH only requires people making connections to go through security again.

 

[jis]

I'm surprised people with no connection would tolerate an extra security check just for the heck of it. Even worst-in-class IAH only requires people making connections to go through security again.

Back then they were talking of providing a bus connection to the land side, but it was not in place yet. Maybe they did get around to it. As you know T-C is mid field with only connection to the main terminal air side via the people mover to get to which you have to walk several hundred yards away from the main terminal tog et to the station. Apparently there is a plan to build a new remote terminal near where the station has been built some day

As I recall at London Heathrow they do not allow arriving passengers who are even just doing international transfer to go into the departure airside without going through security. I have also gone through international transfers in Frankfurt where I had to go through a security barrier to get from the arrival level to the departure level.

 

[adamj023]

Dulles has always been an airport which has lacked in progress. Some areas accelerate airport projects at a much quicker pace. The Port Authority Airports such as JFK, EWR and LGA have been slow to update but at least progress is being made unlike IAD. I doubt progress will be made there anytime soon.

 

[Trogdor]

My understanding of the issue is that when clearing customs you have to come into contact with your checked baggage. Checked bags don't get the same kind of screening that passengers and carryon bags do. Therefore, the area is no longer "sterile" and thus passengers and their carryons must be rescreened before boarding another plane.

Customs inspection is done at the port of entry, thus arriving from an international flight means your first US airport is where all of this occurs. There wouldn't be an easy way to ensure that inspections were done at your final destination (if that destination even had such capacity) if they allowed things to be checked straight through.

In the US, I don't know if it's simply that you cannot have international-to-international transfers that avoid Customs & Immigration by law, or if it's a de facto requirement based on the fact that no US airports are set up that way (and it really wouldn't make much sense to do so). There is no exit immigration in the US, so there would be no reason for airports to build large international departures areas with passengers segregated from domestic fliers. And if you don't have that segregation, then you basically have to force everyone through C&I.

Again, I don't know if (hypothetically) an airport could do this if they wanted to, but I'd be surprised that any airport in the US actually wants to. As mentioned above, the US domestic market is so large that airports don't really have the same level of dependence on international flights as in other parts of the world.

 

[BCL]

Some airports have international arrival terminals but to the best of my knowledge almost any terminal can support international departures.

Depends on the airport. But I was really referring to how they might have a side door that leads towards international baggage claim and customs. As far as I know, that's a strict requirement for international arrivals at any major airport. There are some general aviation airports where people can just get off a plane and then meet with customs, but certainly not at a major passenger airport.

They still need to be equipped for customs, and it gets kind of tricky having any kind of routing to international baggage claim and customs if a domestic terminal isn't built for that. I do remember when United Airlines started international flights out of SFO. United wanted to be able to use their primary domestic terminal for international departures for the convenience of their domestic passengers transferring to international flights. I don't believe that it was typically an issue because most international arrivals didn't typically continue on where they would be boarding. When a plane was prepped for an international departure they would move it to the international terminal. But the other issue was that the airport wanted the departing passengers at the international terminal because that was where the duty free shops were.

 

[MARC Rider]

One might think that a customs and immigration inspection might also include a security screening. On a number of my international arrivals, I had my bags opened anyway, and I had a rather detailed interview with pointed questions about where I had been previously. The Chinese X-ray all luggage, even if you're leaving the airport. (This is a plot point, by the way, in the Israeli film Noodle.) It would seem to me that after that, they could release the passengers to the general airside concourses without further security screening. They did, after all, have a security screening at their originating airport. It's possible that TSA is concerned that airport security in some foreign countries isn't all that good, but, then all of the TSA security theater isn't foolproof, either.

 

[Trogdor]

One might think that a customs and immigration inspection might also include a security screening. On a number of my international arrivals, I had my bags opened anyway, and I had a rather detailed interview with pointed questions about where I had been previously.

Immigration is concerned with the person’s admissibility into the country. Customs is concerned with the admissibility of the person’s belongings into the country (possibly subject to a certain tax).

AIrport security is concerned with making sure you don’t have things that are prohibited to carry onto an airplane. You could have a hunting knife, large bottle of liquid, etc., in your checked baggage and, as long as it doesn’t violate any customs regulations, you’re perfectly fine in their eyes. But you can’t bring those items past the security checkpoint.