Depends on the connection. Only required if you have to take the shuttle to a different Airside.
Posted on 07/23/2026 9:35:18 AM PDT by DFG
Florida's Tampa International Airport (TPA) is on track to privatize its security in a bid to reduce chaos and delays, angering federal workers and their union.
TPA's move, announced earlier this week, comes amidst a broader push by the Trump administration to privatize airports around the country.
In May, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced a public-private partnership model called TSA Gold+, which will allow private contractors to oversee airport security operations by hiring personnel and managing security equipment. That is the program TPA opted into.
A record-long, 43-day government shutdown late last year, as well as lengthy partial shutdowns earlier this year, caused hours-long wait times for travelers as TSA employees went unpaid and many refused to work.
The Trump administration touted privatization as a solution to that problem, as contractors would be able to continue paying security personnel during public funding disputes in Congress.
Des Moines International Airport in Iowa is also 'exploring' the TSA Gold+ program, and Charleston International Airport in South Carolina is 'formally pursuing a transition,' both airports said in public statements.
But privatization is facing pushback from the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), a union that represents the 47,000 Transportation Security Officers at 400 airports across the US.
In a news release published on Tuesday, the union claimed that privatization will reduce safety at airports and is more about profit than increasing efficiency.
'Make no mistake – this is a major departure and step backwards from the aviation screening security system that Congress created in the wake of the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks in 2001,' AFGE National President Everett Kelley said.
'Changes of this magnitude should not be made behind closed doors without the input of Congress, the flying public, the local airport authorities, and TSA employees themselves,' Kelley added.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.com ...
Well, the Tampa TSA workers won’t have to worry ever again about government shutdown pay delays, hopefully.
Play union games, repent in leisure as many in the northern UK have done for decades.
There are things we need to address before we get too far down this road. How are we going to handle DEI/racism issues?
Im no fan of TSA and thought that they should have been shut down long ago if we had to have them at all. The definition of “security” itself needs a long hard look.
One of my children recently flew somewhere and I dropped them off. ALL of the initial “security” (of course these days youre not allowed far if youre not flying) appeared to be muslim women. They had two of them at the initial entry that were speaking gullah gullah click bang with each other. They werent paying attention and they certainly were not going to even attempt to stop someone that they know is coming to do harm.
So we shut down TSA for being a relatively useless waste of money and fire all the employees. Private firms need people and are swarmed with the same unreliable incompetents. Now the private company needs to not just be careful to avoid not having exclusionary practices but they are also going to have to explain in court why women that cant speak english but do have experience werent hired first.
They werent hired because of prejudices against their race, religion, sex, and a number of other things or so they will tell the court.
These imaginary security companies are bankrupt before the first person gets checked in or we wind up with just a comparatively cheaper version of no security.
“connecting flights”
I’m not sure how many of those Tampa has.
Miami probably handles the vast majority of connecting flights to/from the Caribbean and South America.
Haven’t airports and airlines always had the authority to conduct security programs without TSA?
Excellent!
My biggest disappointment with Trump is that he has not disbanded TSA and returned airport security to the airlines. I have been saying that since his 2016 rallies. It should have been part of his basic platform at those rallies.
Good. Concourse A at TPA was a disaster when we flew out in March. Customs in Ft Lauderdale was even worse.
I don’t fly much, but when I do I always get pulled aside and scanned. It used to drive me nuts. Then it dawned on me that it was because I wear underwire bras! It sets off an alarm every time!
Depends on the connection. Only required if you have to take the shuttle to a different Airside.
Never trust the government to do anything except what the private sector can’t, won’t or shouldn’t do for itself.
Exactly
I believe they were planted by third party airplane vendors or mechanics that were from the middle east. We got super lax letting them in.
Terrorists were everywhere on planes that day. Most got grounded before they could do anything or they chickened out.
American women were reporting Muslim husbands disappearing.
Two Muslims in a forced down plane in Nashville tried to hire a taxi all the way to NYC. The FBI picked them up.
A lot of these stories were squashed.
They lost me at the taking off shoes. One idiot tries to set his on fire and every American was forced to remove them “just in case”. W Bush BS.
And the stupid 3 Oz liquid restriction.
Arbitrary. Worse was every airport was different. TSA is a joke.
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