A Major Florida Airport Is Changing How TSA Works

If you’re flying to Florida soon, you need to be aware of your airport’s policies before you travel.

©Tampa International Airport

What do you need to board your flight? What are the luggage regulations? What items do you need to remove from your person or bag to go through security? All great questions! And if you’re flying through one Florida airport, you should know that security is about to CHANGE.

According to CNN, Tampa International Airport is going to privatize Transportation Security Administration operations. This decision comes a few months after President Trump revealed a 2027 budget proposal that called for handing more airport security operations over to private companies.

©Tampa International Airport

Tampa International Airport (TPA) has opted in to the TSA Gold+ program, which is a new public/private partnership screening program. TSA will still have regulatory oversight for TPA’s screening programs, and those screenings will still have to follow TSA rules, but the employees and equipment involved will be managed by a third-party company instead of the United States government.

©AP

“TSA looks forward to working closely with our airport partners to implement enhancements that will benefit everyone who travels through a TSA Gold+ airport,” the agency said in a statement Tuesday. Participation in this program is voluntary and requires airports to apply. At this time, two other airports are taking steps to privatize security under TSA Gold+ — Charleston International Airport in South Carolina, and Des Moines International Airport in Iowa.

PreCheck signage

Currently, 20 airports in the U.S. have security run by private companies and supervised by TSA under the Screening Partnership Program. That list includes the Orlando Sanford Airport, as well as San Francisco International, Kansas City International, and 17 other smaller airports.

Orlando Sanford Airport

Privatizing security operations has become a major talking point in recent months, particularly when government shutdowns continued to interrupt air travel operations at many major hubs. However, the move is not without its controversy. The union that supports over 47,000 TSA employees, American Federation of Government Employees, has spoken out against this change.

“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 and the deadly bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in 1988,” Everett Kelley, AFGE’s national president, said in a statement. “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.”

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