Originally Posted by
USCTrojan83
I've flown out of MCO at least a dozen times this year at various times, morning afternoon and evening. One APM is always closed for int'l pax. Is there not a better solution, especially for outbound passengers? Why not realign the crowd flow so guests leaving immigration merge with "regular" people prior to boarding the APM, with both groups loading via the outer "exit" doors? Guests arriving into the gatehouse would then unload via the inner doors (the current loading area)? Just don't understand the logic of wasting an entire train, especially if the international pax on the train are cleared into the US with no reason to be kept separate. What am I missing?
They use to have it where the exit from CBP was on the center platform (where the escalator is in the middle of the station) and all of the pax would merge. There was a sliding glass door that was guarded to make it where arriving INTL pax couldn’t just walk out back into the airside without being re-screened. Overall, it’s more efficient now than it was before because the TSA had to previously sweep each tram after every run because the pax coming from the main terminal where secure, while those going back weren’t. Now, the TSA just reserves the one train for INTL pax which funnels right out of the secure area in the main terminal and allows domestic pax the ability to transfer to Gates 100-129 without going back through security again.