So they've been building a new terminal (though all airside connected A-C) at SNA for about 2/3rds of forever, its finally almost there and walking back from gate 17 last night I was peeking over the paper covered glass to get a view of the new lobby and saw every checkpoint had a Rapidscan

Ugh. Not cool.

We fly international almost exclusively these days, so it's been a few years since we've flown SNA, but we sometimes fly out on domestic hops... can you say which airlines are to be served by the new terminal?

Well the good news is at SNA all the terminals are connected airside. I've had both UA and WN flights in the new gates but it seems mostly WN right now. No idea what the plan is though once its opened. The downside is while initially one could probably avoid the NoS by using A or B security and walking I'm afraid once these things are up in one terminal its probably only a matter of time until they spread. Though I'm not 100% space-wise if they could fit at A/B without some rearranging of things.

what a bunch of d*bags the TSA are. That was a nice airport, now useless. Oh well, just head over to LGB instead. What are they getting, L3 I hope.....

The rapidscans, where its like a booth not the blue walled ones, pretty sure that's the L3 model (I just know I don't get in either, so don't spend much time on the differences). SNA isn't worthless yet, A and B still don't have them....for now.

The round mostly transparent ones are the marginally less-bad millimetre wave (MMW); the boxy two-sided ones are the backscatter X-ray (BKSX).

more to the point, the L3 MMW ones you described are nearly certainly to be ATR (no perv in a booth looking at your private parts) stick figure rendering. If that makes a difference to folks.

nope, not to me anyways.

I really don't see how they could fit at A/B without a complete teardown and remodel of the entire screening areas. Those lines are single-file, narrow funnels that barely fit the WTMD and luggage x-ray.

You have to kept avoiding through NOS. Just stay away from there. Don't go through the bodyscanners. Just only WTMD is right choice for you. I don't like it to see TSA to install MMW.

Good riddance to TSA in SNA!!!

yeah, i agree which makes it all the more stupid. I mean unless they plan to actually completely redo the A/B screening areas this was a complete waste of money and will only affect non-terrorists since any actual terrorist would simply walk to A/B and avoid C as they are all connected air-side.

They can't fit the technology right now at the current north or south screening checkpoints, but with the new one to open in a month or so, they can send lots of people down to the new one while they "upgrade" ( ) the south checkpoint. Then close the north, send everyone to the south and new checkpoints, and "upgrade" ( ) there.

The only possible savior would be money and space. They would have to take more area below in the baggage claim area for the electronics rooms, and I'm not sure SNA wants to give that up.

Anyway, I believe Southwest is going to be the biggest user of the new gates and terminal, with UA and AA staying pretty much where they are. The new terminal opens November 14 (or so) and info can be found here.

Or they'll just flat out lie (no, really) like I've seen them do several times at MSP. The main terminal there has 5 checkpoints available to passengers. Of those, 3 are completely NoS free. They will station employees to stand in front of the entrances to these obviously operational checkpoints and tell people that the lines at the NoS only checkpoints are faster. Of course, they slow the baggage screening at these NoS free checkpoints to a crawl so as to appear slower. The funny thing is, most people don't seem to buy it.


I would envision a similar situation at SNA where they stand in front of the entrances to A/B and aggressively direct people to the new concourse. It's how they roll.

SNA is a big business travel market, with most tourists still using LAX, so I don't think that will work as well on seasoned travelers. Before they expanded the checkpoints at SNA the lines in the mornings would be nearly an hour long (though now they are just a few minutes) and TSA would try to get people to go to the other checkpoint, and it worked on very few people.

That said, I have to say I don't know if it is the lack of NoS machines or what, but the SNA TSA station is one of the best I've dealt with in the US lately. They work fast, are fairly nice, and move people through quickly. When something is wrong, or different, it clearly stands out.

I can't imagine how, without say going down to a single line.

My elderly mother who recently got the third degree at PHX was asking me why can't every airport be like SNA? She will be so disappointed she loves that place.