If you’re flying out of Orlando International Airport (MCO), the TSA wants you to know that security procedures have been updated. Officially, they’re asking travelers to make sure that any electronic device larger than a cell phone is removed from your travel bags and placed into bins for screening. There is also a second change to TSA screening process at MCO that wasn’t on this press release, but I’ve personally encountered.
“TSA is committed to raising the baseline for aviation security and we appreciation the cooperation of the traveling public in this endeavor,” said TSA Federal Security Director Jerry Henderson. “The simple step of separating personal electronic items for screening allows TSA officers to more closely focus on resolving alerts and stopping terror threats.”
There has also been an unannounced change to the screening procedures that I encountered on my recent trip through MCO. Passengers are being asked to remove food items from their carry-on luggage and bags and place it in a bin for X-ray and potential enhanced screening.
Families that travel with a lot of snacks have reported that they are being subject to extra screening due to their food. For instance, if you’ve bought stuff at WDW to bring home perhaps plan to place that in checked-in luggage.
Best suggestion here is to pack your food in quart sized ziplock plastic bags. If you are worried about contamination of your ‘safe’ food, ask the TSA personnel to please use new gloves when handling your food items.
Because this new process is expected to add some delays to the screening process, passengers departing from MCO are now being ased to arrive two hours prior to their scheduled departure time.
Travelers enrolled in the TSA Pre-Check don’t have to follow these procedures. Other TSA rules still apply.
If you’re a frequent user of MCO, how does this request to arrive even earlier make you feel?
I think it’s absurd. First we’re forced to bring food on the plane since the airlines no longer provide food during the flight, then we’re further penalized by longer screening times for it. And how does screening food make us safer anyway? Are they afraid mom’s hiding a bomb in Junior’s crackers?
How many foid-based terrorist plots have they foiled?
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