Landed yesterday afternoon and the had the longest taxi ever. Ok, I can accept that. Cleared Immigration...OK. Got down to luggage belt.....waited ages to get bags....slightly annoying. Walked through more security.....Ok. Then was told to leave bag and walk through second security where you have to take off the belts, shoes, take the laptop out etc. Why? We've just gotten off a flight! Why do we need to clear airport security AGAIN to go landside? Then get the monorail to the terminal, walk for ages and then wait on bags...AGAIN!
Yes, it is a big airport with multiple parallel runways and satellite gate areas linked to a central terminal area. After getting your bags the "security" you walked through, would have been customs. Because of the layout and infrastructure at Orlando (MCO) you are then required to place your heavy luggage on a conveyer that delivers it to the main terminal arrivals area, whilst you board the transit to that area. In the meantime you will be mixing airside with the general (airside) traffic of arriving/departing domestic and international passengers. This will be the likely reason you are required to pass through an arch / baggage scan before entering this area. You may have just
gotton off a flight, but it wasn't one that the TSA had any operational control over. Having then arrived at the central terminal area, you need to re-collect your bags along with all the other domestic arrivals. The only reason you go through this process twice, is because yours had to be customs cleared first.
I am not advocating this system, but because of the design and operation of MCO, this is the process for international arriving passengers. Bear in mind that the vast majority of flights at US airports (including MCO) are domestic, and half of this process is eliminated for domestic passengers.