Not sure what was up today, but they had to close down one of the trams because the security was backed up and snaked around the tram on the left side, with the line zig-zagging back and forth 6 or 7 times. It took 25 minutes to get through..and that was making sure I was nowhere near the full body scanner lines.

I feel your pain.

The way security is set up in TPA, it can go very wrong very quickly. I once barely made an AirTran flight for the same reason. By the time I got through security, the door was about to close. There was still a long line of people waiting to go through security and the plane was half empty, so I'm sure many people wound up missing the flight.

There needs to be a better way than having six different individual concourse security points that cannot do overflow for one-another. Heck, GSO built an addition for all the extra security lines that they don't need. (Almost all the gates on that side of the airport are empty. Three times in the past month - each time I've flown out of there - I've been the only person going through security. I think there are six scanners, but only one line is ever open.) TPA should do the same.

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

TPA security is either great or dreadful. That line can get VERY long.

And, unless there's been a recent change, the lack of a SkyPriority line makes travel to/from TPA even less appealing....

Um, you could get to the airport EARLIER!! I always build in 30 minutes for security. It just makes me feel better, not being in a rush. You never know what might cause a security line issue (sick TSA agents, an extra flight, a delayed flight, etc.).

If your wait for "security" exceeds 10 min for any reason, file a complaint. You can do it on the spot or after the fact at 1-866-289-9673. Name any TSA employee(s) who contributed to your delay.

Having experienced TPA...the line seems to be either 1min or north of 60min. The TSA should be expected to show level of control over the experience of those being screened. Variable lines are to be expected, the huge variations you see at some airports like TPA and IAD are related to the inability of TSA to effectively staff positions at the necessary times.

Their policies also greatly contribute to the unnecessary delays that many passengers experience.

+1

Anyone who has ever flown through TPA during a TSA shift change when a couple flights are running late so people are late getting to security...

I'm guessing the poster who recommended getting to the airport earlier hasn't been at TPA! When it goes wrong, you could be there a couple hours early and still not make your flight.

TPA is an interesting airport. personally i always thought they should have put the security checkpoint, oh, i dunno, maybe before the trams?

Have flown out of TPA a couple times in the last year and it widely varies - mainly due to the level of TSA staffing - like others can be 5 min or less or 45 min. Really isn't any inbetween. Prime example of an older aiport where they had to shoe-horn in the security and it just doesn't work. The TSA itself certainly doesn't help the process.

Plus it really needs a priority lane!!

yeah...often experiences waits of 30 minutes or more and have even missed a flight at TPA. Personally, I recommend flying out of SRQ if the price is within $80-$100.

DL really should work with TSA to get a priority line at TPA. They should also try to eliminate the double check of IDs - either check them before the tram or after the tram, not both.

I must have been lucky in the past, I never have been delayed using either Terminals E or F, maybe its because I fly out of there during the midday times, and not during the rush hour.

Just to clarify there are only 4 satellite terminals at TPA, A,C,E and F, according to the TPA airport web site, B is used as a remote baggage sort facility and F des not exist.

Mr. Elliott

It should belongs to TSS and not-specific time on DL forums. Mods, please move the thread to TSS.

I'm kind of surprised to read this. I fly out of the E concourse in TPA north of 100 times a year, and have never waited more than ten minutes. Ever. While they don't really have a security line, it has never bothered me thanks to the short lines.