Need to exit security at MSP before heading to next flight?
 

Hi, I am planning a return trip from Iceland on Icelandic Air to MSP airport(terminal 2) in Minnesota. After landing at MSP at about 6pm, I will go to Delta at terminal 1 to fly home.
Do I have to exit security to ride the monorail to terminal 1? When getting to terminal 1, do I have to go through security check again?
Just want to plan enough layover time in between fights.
Thanks!

Yes, passengers arriving on the IcelandAir flight (or Delta when that's around) into MSP from KEF have to re-clear security at MSP at the terminal from which the next flight departs. In the case of going from IcelandAir to Delta at MSP, there is the land-side terminal change.

Unless you are arriving in the U.S. from an airport that has a U.S. "pre-clearance" facility (such as can be found at airports like YYZ, DUB, BDA), you will always find yourself landside after clearing U.S. Immigration and Customs from an international flight to the U.S., and will need to re-clear security if catching a connecting flight.

Thanks guys! Unfortunately I have no preclearance of any kind. Oh well, good thing is there is a late evening flight from Delta that I can take. The layover is 3hr 20min after I land at MSP. Hopefully this airport is not crazy like some other ones.

What the others mean by "preclearance" in this case, is not things like TSA PreCheck or Global Entry. What they are referring to is that some international airports - most of the major Canada ones, Dublin and Shannon in Ireland, a few Caribbean islands, and Abu Dhabi have US Customs on site, so you clear US Customs before departure, and then when you arrive at your US destination you are treated like a domestic passenger and just dumped into the airside concourses. It *can* be an overall better experience, but it can also just move the annoyance to a different location.

Interesting. I never knew such thing exist.

More about U.S. pre-clearance facilities here:

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/preclearance

KEF is not a CBP Preclearance airport, and so -- absent the very rare mess-ups by the airline/airport/CBP -- there will always be a re-clearing of security on arrival to the US when coming in from KEF.

When traveling into the US from airports without CBP -preclearance, at some US airports of entry there are intra-terminal flight transfers where it is possible to get between the international arrival flight and onward flights without necessarily going land-side at the US airport terminals. And MSP is such an airport, for some intra-terminal transfer. But in these cases too, whether going via the transfer/transit security routes or going into the general public area before heading to clear the land-side general passenger security screening checkpoints, a passenger re-screening at the US airport is required.

If the thread-starting member was doing KEF-MSP-___ all on Delta, there is a transit security path available at MSP Terminal 1 right after clearing the baggage thru customs; and this means there is a way to avoid going out land-side (into the general public area) at MSP.

But the thread-staring member is coming into MSP on Icelandair and continuing onto Delta. And this means an inter-terminal transfer between Humphrey/Terminal 2 and Lindbergh/Terminal 1. So this Icelandair arriving passenger will:

1. clear passport control, collect any checked luggage, and clear customs at Humphrey/Terminal 2;
2. exit into the general public area land-side at Humphrey/Terminal 2;
3. go outside and head land-side over to Lindbergh/Terminal 1 (typically using the tram/iight rail type connection);
4. do the post-US-arrival passenger security screening at the the land-side general passenger screening checkpoints at Lindbergh/Terminal 1.

While I appreciate that the transfer process you are describing is different than that found at many U.S. airports, I think that many of us would consider ourselves "landside" any time that we had to re-clear security (even via a special checkpoint not available to the general public), which is what the OP seemed to be asking in the thread title: "Need to exit security at MSP before heading to next flight?"

1. Only if relying upon a very peculiar understanding of "land-side" at airports can it be said that a traveler arriving into an airport after an international flight is always "land-side" whenever having to re-clear security (at a transit airport) after arrival -- regardless of the paths taken for re-clearing security at an airport -- to make an onward flight.

2. Only if relying upon a very peculiar understanding of "air-side" at airports can it be said that a traveler flying out of an airport after an international flight is always "air-side" whenever not having to re-clear security (after arrival at a transit airport) to make an onward flight.

Fortunately, neither a peculiar definition of "land-side" nor of "air-side" changes a thing for the threat-starting FlyerTalk member taking the the Delta flight out of MSP, as this journey combining Icelandair+Delta via a transit at MSP goes like this regardless of peculiar definition for "land-side" and/or "air-side":

1. clear passport control, collect any checked luggage, and clear customs at Humphrey/Terminal 2;
2. exit into the general public area land-side at Humphrey/Terminal 2;
3. go outside and head land-side over to Lindbergh/Terminal 1 (typically using the tram/iight rail type connection);
4. do the post-US-arrival passenger security screening at the the land-side general passenger screening checkpoints at Lindbergh/Terminal.

If the OP were to be coming into Lindberg/Terminal 1 from KEF -- which is where the DL flight from KEF has been coming in -- then there would be the option of a special/transit passenger security screening checkpoint not accessible to the general public. But since the OP is coming into Humprhey/Terminal 2 -- as that is what the Icelandair flight at MSP uses -- there is no special/transit passenger security screening checkpoint of relevance.

Do you consider these definitions "peculiar"?

Collins says:

"landside
in British English
(ˈlændˌsaɪd IPA Pronunciation Guide)
NOUN
1. the part of an airport farthest from the aircraft, the boundary of which is the security check, customs, passport control, etc Compare airside"

(Emphasis added.)

Macmillan says:

"the landside part of an airport is the part before you go through the security checks to get on an aircraft"

Peculiar definitions in an aviation world where there have long been security screening checks — general/originating passenger security screening checks, transfer passenger security screening checks, and gate-area passenger security screening checks — that can be placed before and after going through other passenger security screening checks to get to an aircraft on multi-flight trips.

They seem to define landside as necessarily being the non-sterile side of an airport and airside as being limited to just the sterile side of an airport. But:

1. airside ≠ sterile section of the airport; and

2. landside ≠ non-sterile section of the airport; and

3. there are also non-sterile, airside sections of airports.

Think about the four terms/sets — airside, landside, sterile and non-sterile — in terms of a Venn diagram.

And to throw in a loop, what about for those scheduled commercial passenger flights even post-9/11 where it’s been possible for passengers to fly without going through a passenger security screening checkpoints before the flight? Are the passengers landside throughout their trip by plane from airport to airport? By those peculiar definitions from Collins and Macmillan, such passengers would have remained “landside” for the entirety of the trip from airport to airport by air.

Do you consider yourself always “landside” at LHR whenever having previously done connection at LHR on say a AA+BA US-LHR-EU/India/Israel itinerary without physically clearing passport control with the UKBF (and/or predecessor agencies) at LHR? I certainly don’t, and those trips continue to have a passenger security rescreening involved during a connection.

Is there anything better than dueling pedants??? :-D