Is TSA delay impacting international arrivals & connections?

CBP officers, the ones who run passport control and customs, are being paid. There's no issue there. The only issue may be TSA screening.

I just returned from Costa Rica last night with a connecting flight to Tucson. There must of been 300 to 400 people cued in line for passport control. Fortunately I have Global Entry and I was through in less than 5 minutes. Security screening was a different matter. No Pre Check available and hundreds of people in line. It took about an hour to get through. Thanks to my connection flight being delayed I was able to get home.
RDJ

Thanks for sharing, ridejo. I am glad you made it!
I have friends coming to the US to visit this Friday and they have a connection in Atlanta.

Everyone in my family is TSA-precheck and we all have CLEAR. But only myself and my tween have Global Entry.
We'll be going to Mexico through LAX around Easter, so I'm trying to get prepared for what's ahead on return. And hoping this all gets resolved by then, for the sake of everyone traveling and especially TSA workers who need their salaries!

The short answer is it might depend. In Chicago at O'Hare you would. All arriving international flights except from Canada where you go through immigration and customs in Canada before you depart you will arrive at Terminal 5. For sure if your connecting flight departs from Terminal 1, 2, or 3 (United, certain others and American) you will have to re-enter security in that other terminal. Delta uses Terminal 5 for all flights from O'Hare. I think the logistics of Terminal 5 are everyone arriving on international flights has to exit the secure area even if their connection is departing the same Terminal 5 but I have never actually done it. FWIW I did an AI inquiry and it told me all US airports require you leave the secure area and re-enter for a connecting flight.

Note there are some other locations where pre-screening on flights to US occurs. Besides Canada, also Dublin and I think maybe some Mexico airports. So you might look into that for your own flight.

Correct that all international arrivals with connections have passengers be screened again. Exception like Dublin and Canada.

I connect in Atlanta quite often on my international trips. I just didn’t know how impacted that might be. Good news on CBP officers getting paid.

But for those connecting, it’s not like you can arrive to airport earlier.

Hoping this mess ends soon!

Apparently quite a few airports use private contractors in lieu of TSA and the private contractors are still being paid, so it is business as usual. Not many high volume airports on the list, but ....

Atlantic City International Airport, New Jersey
Charles M. Schulz—Sonoma County Airport, California
Dawson Community Airport, Montana
Great Falls International Airport, Montana
Glacier Park International Airport, Montana
Greater Rochester International Airport, New York
Havre City-County Airport, Montana
Kansas City International Airport, Missouri
L.M. Clayton Airport, Montana
Orlando Sanford International Airport, Florida
Portsmouth International Airport, New Hampshire
Punta Gorda Airport, Florida
Roswell International Air Center, New Mexico
San Francisco International Airport, California
Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport, Florida
Sidney-Richland Municipal Airport, Montana
Sioux Falls Regional Airport, South Dakota
Tupelo Regional Airport, Mississippi
Wokal Field/Glasgow International Airport, Montana
Yellowstone Airport, Montana

I'm flying out of PHL to LHR in late May. I sincerely hope the funding issues will be resolved by then. Last year I missed my flight to Heathrow (through my own fault) and I'm determined to get there with ample time this year.

CNN is reported that ICE is making a positive differences at Atlanta Airport.

The local radio news here has reported over and over that SFO is not one of those airports beset with the TSA and acute delay problems.

No matter, I still get to SFO at least 4 hours prior to international departure. If the departure is scheduled 2:30 PM, most likely I'll be setting foot at SFO ca. 10 AM.

Honestly, I think if things don’t get resolved by this Friday, all bets are off. Our elected officials go on holiday Friday for two weeks I think for a lot of TSA agents knowing that nobody’s even trying to get them paid for two weeks it is going to be the final blow. So I think the reports right now are not reflecting what you’re going to see over the next few weeks.

The only thing that apparently the ice agents are being allowed to do is check IDs and even that is under the supervision of a TSA employee. Since I live in Atlanta and no people who were flying out of the airport, including myself, I don’t agree with CNN‘s optimistic report. I’ve been following the thread that gets posted on Reddit every day with real people reporting real wait times. At 2 in the morning the wait time is an hour and 25 minutes.

I have a flight right now that is flying home next week British Airways to New York, followed by a Delta flight New York to Atlanta. because I’m convinced that chaos is breaking out, I actually have a frequent flyer ticket on hold to get myself directly to Atlanta as a backup. We’ll see what happens.

Thanks, Mr. E, for that list.

I'm flying out of Sioux Falls in about 10 days. Unforuntately, I will have to deal with O'Hare on my way there.

Frank II, the only news report on conditions since the assistance was sent in was from Atlanta. The CNN reporter was actually a bit stunned that the lines had gone from hours to minutes. Apparently they are at 14 airports so you might find the same in O'Hare and it just hasnt been reported yet.

O'hare hasn't been reporting too many problems.

How early I get to the airport will depend on my boarding pass for the flight. If I get Touchless TSA Precheck that will save a lot of time.

The CNN reporter was actually a bit stunned that the lines had gone from hours to minutes

I’m monitoring the thread on Reddit. The CNN reporter needs to go back. This morning lines are a couple hours long in ATL

An Atlanta news channel was there in the peak travel time and they reported the 4 hour lines were now 2 hours. Does make sense to me that things have to improve a little if you take the TSA guy from watching the back door and have him open a line in security. Well, time will tell and hopefully the news media will too.

Hi all,
We will be arriving at ATL on an international flight and have a domestic connection. Looking at the map of Hartsfield Airport, it shows international bagage claim in the international arrivals building. Is there a transfer counter as well ? Or do we have to go to Delta check in the departure terminal?
Also , do we have to go through security again, even though we are in the areas behind security, providing of course our baggage can be transferred from the international terminal to our domestic flight.
Thanks!

Jjla - if your bag is checked thru to final destination, then it is easy. After passport control, you go to baggage claim next door. Once you get bag and go thru customs, Delta bag drop-off is right around the corner.

You WILL need to go thru security again and that is my concern. Then probably need to go on the train to next terminal for your domestic departure.

On your return, then Atlanta will be just a domestic connection with no security or needing to get bag (assuming one ticket and baggage checked to final destination).

To add to my post before for person connecting in ATL. I am assuming you are not coming from Dublin where you arrive in ATL as if it was a domestic flight.
But most of international arrivals go thru passport control, baggage claim and drop-off at the counter after customs, and security/xray.

I’m flying in from the Netherlands, arriving at international arrivals and connecting to FLL.

FWIW I did an AI inquiry and it told me all US airports require you leave the secure area and re-enter for a connecting flight.

This is not true, some international arrivals stay airside the whole time and are TSA screened at a dedicated screening leaving Immigration/Customs but spill directly into the departure concourse, ie passengers do NOT need leave the secure area and join the regular TSA line to be screened for connecting flights, AFAIK only at these locations:

Dulles: Star Alliance international arrivals stay airside for example United, Lufthansa connecting to United flights

Miami: OneWorld international arrivals stay airside for example American connecting to American flights

Minneapolis: SkyTeam international arrivals stay airside for example Delta, KLM, Air France connecting to Delta flights

Apparently you know who just announced he’s going to sign an Executive Order to pay TSA again. Hopefully this helps to alleviate long lines and delays at airports.