How long can we expect it to take to get through immigration at MCO?

[Goosey-Lucy]

In 2016 it took about 2.5 hours to clear immigration as we landed behind a couple other flights, May 2018 we were loading the hire car up within the hour as we landed first

[Cez]

We have cleared quite quickly before but last time we went was about an hour plus so no one can tell. Like everyone has said, it depends on how many flights land at the same time.

[ManCity]

Originally Posted by wifey

It’s the staffing they need to tighten up on. Seriously there’s an issue there for sure that needs rectifying.

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It is not just storms as Thorpy said, it is the fact that planes don't fly exactly on schedule. It is all very well having a nice schedule with flights spread out with gaps between planes so immigration can cope, but in the real world, it doesn't always happen every day. You only need one plane arriving on time, the two previous flights both late, and the next flight being early and you have a bottleneck of 4 planeloads in immigration all at the same time. That is not immigration's fault.

[wifey]

Surely the airlines must need to notify of the late flight departures and arrivals ASAP?

[Thorpy]

I'd imagine the the airlines do notify them that they are going to be late... It's CBP then notifying the staff that they can't leave at the end of their shift because a plane was late, or they can't have their break because it inconveniences these passengers... that's where I think the difficulty comes in. You could simply employ more officers, but then the cost of running the department goes up and that pressure starts to bear, especially as if there's not a lot of planes at any given time you'll have a lot of spare officers being paid to wait about.

It's a delicate balance as you're either paying people to be ready and "wasting money" or you're running it cheaply, but not providing as good a service to the travellers.

[mick]

Originally Posted by Thorpy

I'd imagine the the airlines do notify them that they are going to be late... It's CBP then notifying the staff that they can't leave at the end of their shift because a plane was late, or they can't have their break because it inconveniences these passengers... that's where I think the difficulty comes in. You could simply employ more officers, but then the cost of running the department goes up and that pressure starts to bear, especially as if there's not a lot of planes at any given time you'll have a lot of spare officers being paid to wait about.

It's a delicate balance as you're either paying people to be ready and "wasting money" or you're running it cheaply, but not providing as good a service to the travellers.

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I'm sure that air traffic control at MCO know to within seconds the anticipated arrival times of incoming flights and maybe that information is shared with Immigration but as you say it's a question of balance of staffing. You only need a 747 from the UK, Germany and Mexico arriving at gates 70-99 within 5 minutes of each other to soon have 1,300 people in the immigration hall.

If every plane from around the world arrives at gates 70-99 on time (not just from the UK obviously ) then maybe staffing levels at what may be the peak of international arrivals can be reasonably determined to handle them. Trouble is, as I said earlier, planes don't always arrive when they're supposed to and I guess they can't have staff just hanging around because a couple of flights are late on the day.


Mick

[bighal]

MCO and just about every airport handling international flights all have the same problems of trying to balance the number of staff required and keeping costs down. We all want cheaper flights but having loads of IO hanging around for the few times there is loads of people to process doesn't make economic sense in the long run. Its all a fine balancing act. UK airports are just as bad at times and then other times you just breeze through.

[tspill]

Originally Posted by bighal

MCO and just about every airport handling international flights all have the same problems of trying to balance the number of staff required and keeping costs down. We all want cheaper flights but having loads of IO hanging around for the few times there is loads of people to process doesn't make economic sense in the long run. Its all a fine balancing act. UK airports are just as bad at times and then other times you just breeze through.

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And reducing costs will always win.

[Rbf1979]

Who knows. we have had anything from 20mins to 2hrs

[Kraken]

All airports worldwide charge passenger handling fees that differ by the passengers origin, i.e. international or domestic arrival. The main difference between the two is the additional fee levied to pay to immigration & customs for international arrivals.

US CBP to try to match the staffing levels to expected arrivals as best they can. But as has already been stated, all you need is a few early or late arrivals to screw things up.

I've landed in Orlando on the VS75 some 40mins early & there were only 3 desks open in immigration (one for US Citizens & two for Visitors). The next shift started to arrive as we waited, but were in no hurry to start work a nanosecond early to help move the queue. Had we arrived on-time, the next shift would have been on duty and waiting for us.

At the end of the day, immigration will take as long as it takes. Could be under in 15mins, could be 2hrs+ (possibly with a wait on the plane before you're allowed to disembark). The CBP officers take their job seriously and if they keep people waiting, then so be it.

That said, I have found the CBP officers in Orlando to be generally quite friendly compared to some other US airports.