Connecting at Orlando: three security zones, and which one your airline uses

Last checked 30 September 2026

A connection is when your trip has two flights and you change planes in between. Orlando has three separate security zones: Gates 1–59 (American, United, Alaska, Frontier), Gates 70–129 (Delta, Southwest) and Terminal C (JetBlue and many airlines from Europe and South America). Changing from one zone to another means going through security again, even inside the same building.

Two words used below. Security (also called TSA screening) is the checkpoint where your bags go through a scanner and you walk through a body scanner. Once you're through it, you're in the secure area, the part of the airport with the gates. If you leave the secure area you have to go through security again to get back in.

At a glance

• Orlando has three separate security zones, not one. Two are in the main building ("Terminals A and B"): one for Gates 1–59 and one for Gates 70–129. The third is Terminal C.
• Your airline decides your zone. For example, American and United are in the Gates 1–59 zone; Delta and Southwest are in the Gates 70–129 zone; JetBlue is in Terminal C. Full list below.
• Two airlines in the same building can still be in different zones. Delta to United, or Southwest to American, means leaving the secure area, walking about 5 to 10 minutes, and going through security again. The airport says so on its own website.
• Same zone: you can usually stay inside security. Inside a zone the gates are in "gate areas" reached by a short tram called the Gate Link.
• Terminal C to the main building (or back): there is no way to stay inside security. Take the train or the shuttle bus, then go through security again.
• Landing from another country: where you land changes your wait. Passport control is much slower at Terminal C (a typical 36 minutes, and one passenger in ten waits about 76 or more) than at the main building's Gates 70–99 (a typical 12 minutes).

Which zone is my airline in?

This comes from the airport's own airline list. Look up both of your airlines.

• Gates 1–59 (west end of the main building): Alaska, Allegiant, American, Avelo, Breeze, Frontier, United.
• Gates 70–129 (east end of the main building): Delta, Southwest, Sun Country, and Air Canada, Air Transat, Bahamasair, BermudAir, Flair, LATAM, Viva, Volaris and WestJet.
• Terminal C (a separate building): JetBlue, and Aer Lingus, Aeromexico, Air France, Avianca, Azul, British Airways, Caribbean, Copa, Discover, Emirates, GOL, Iberia, Icelandair, Norse Atlantic, Porter, TAP, Virgin Atlantic and Zipair.

One thing to watch: the airport's list shows Frontier's security zone as Gates 1–59 but also lists some Frontier gates in the 70–99 range, which belong to the other zone. If you're flying Frontier, check your boarding pass. A flight run for one of these airlines by a smaller partner airline may also be somewhere else. Your boarding pass or your airline's app is always the final word.

Inside the main building

The main building is one large building. Its two halves, Terminal A and Terminal B, are just its two sides, only 525 feet across. But the gates are not in the building. They're in separate gate areas: Gates 1–29, 30–59, 70–99 and 100–129. Each one is reached by its own tram, the Gate Link, which runs every 2 minutes, all day and night, and takes about a minute.

• Switching between two gate areas in the same zone (1–29 and 30–59, or 70–99 and 100–129) can be done inside security. When you get off the Gate Link, go straight to the other Gate Link. The airport warns that if you go out into the building you won't be let back in without going through security again. It also warns that at certain times of day, while international passengers are arriving, the switch isn't possible and you may have to go out and through security again.
• Switching between the west zone and the east zone (say, Gates 30–59 to Gates 100–129) means leaving the secure area and going through the other zone's security checkpoint. The airport's own page tells you to expect this: "If you exit the area, you will need to go back through the TSA security checkpoint." It gives the walk between the two sides as about 5 to 10 minutes. Add the time in the security line at the far end.

Building work on the Gate Link, until late 2027. The airport is rebuilding the Gate Link trams for Gates 70–129, from December 2025 to late 2027. In the daytime one tram keeps running. Overnight the airport says you will use shuttle buses for part of your journey. The airport's guide for the works is aimed mainly at people using Gates 100–129 between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m.

Terminal C

Terminal C is a separate building with its own security checkpoint on Level 2. Once you're through it, every gate in Terminal C is reachable without leaving security. The airport says: "simply walk to your next gate."

Between Terminal C and the main building you cannot stay inside security. There are two ways:

• The Terminal Link train. It runs all day and night, every 4 minutes, and the ride takes about 4 minutes. The train station is a walk from Terminal C: go up to Level 4, cross a pedestrian bridge and go through Parking Garage C, about 1,200 feet. At the other end the train stops at the main building, under the Hyatt hotel.
• The shuttle bus. It runs all day and night. At Terminal C it leaves from Level 1 (the ground-transport level) at Space C272. At the main building it leaves from Level 1 at Space B65.

Either way you arrive outside security, and you go through security for your next gate.

Landing from another country

Passport control is the desk where an officer from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checks your passport. Orlando's international arrivals come in at the main building's Gates 70–99 or at Terminal C, and the wait differs a lot between them:

These are for the year to 23 September 2026. CBP says its times don't include collecting your bags or finding your way around the airport.

If you flew in from a preclearance airport: CBP checks passengers at 16 airports abroad before they board (the list includes Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Dublin and Abu Dhabi). If you flew from one of them, you skip passport control and the second security check when you land, so those steps don't apply to you. Ask your airline whether your bags go through to your next flight.

Landing at the main building (Gates 70–99). The steps, in order:

1. Everyone arriving from another country, including US citizens: go through passport control.
2. Everyone: collect all your checked bags from the carousel, whatever your final destination.
3. Passengers connecting to another flight: leave the Customs area. An airline representative takes your checked bags and puts them on the TSA screening belt.
4. Passengers connecting to another flight: go through the TSA checkpoint for your next gate. Gates 70–99 are right after it. For Gates 100–129, take the Gate Link and stay inside security. For Gates 1–59, the airport's instruction is to leave the secure area and go through the Gates 1–59 checkpoint. For Terminal C, leave the secure area, take the Gate Link to the main building, leave the secure area again, follow the signs to Terminal C and ride the Terminal Link train.

Landing at Terminal C. The steps, in order:

1. Everyone arriving from another country, including US citizens: go to baggage claim and the Customs and immigration area, collect all your checked bags (including oversize items) and go through passport control with your documents ready.
2. Everyone: leave through the one-way doors onto Level 6.
3. Passengers connecting on Aer Lingus, Aeromexico, Avianca, Azul, Copa, Discover, Emirates, Icelandair or JetBlue: drop your bags at the airline's recheck counter just outside the doors. Passengers connecting on any other airline: go to the airline's check-in counter.
4. Passengers whose next flight leaves from Terminal C: go to the Level 2 security checkpoint, then to Gates 230–254.
5. Passengers whose next flight leaves from the main building: walk across the pedestrian bridge to the Train Station, take the Terminal Link and go to your airline's check-in counter.

Going through security again after an international arrival is the normal routine at US airports. A trial scheme lets some passengers skip it. TSA's announcement of it names two flights, both from London, to Atlanta and Dallas. Orlando is not one of them. On a few routes, eligible connecting passengers don't collect and recheck their bags, but still go through security again. Check with your airline.

If your flights are on separate tickets

If you booked two flights separately, you collect your bags, check in again with the second airline, and go through security again. At Orlando that can mean the Terminal Link train or the shuttle bus as well. Add the time to collect your bags, check in again and go through security.

Tips

• Look up both of your airlines on the list above before you travel. If they're in different zones, expect to leave security and go through it again.
• If you have to go through security again, the airport offers MCO Reserve, a free way to book a time slot with its own lane, up to 7 days ahead. It is for people without TSA PreCheck or CLEAR. It runs 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the main building and 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Terminal C, for a limited number of slots each day, so it only helps daytime connections. The airport warns that security waits change quickly.
• Late at night, look at the Gate Link notice above. You may be on a shuttle bus.
• Landing from another country, check your airline's terminal on the list above. It tells you which passport-control queue you're joining.

GateCast grades your connection from A to F on how likely you are to make it. The grade is an estimate. GateCast knows which airlines you're flying but has no gate information, so at an airport with separate zones like this one, check your boarding pass and add time for any second security check.

Checked 30 September 2026. Terminals, gates and airlines change, so confirm with the airport and your airline before you travel.