TSA checkpoint at Minneapolis-St. Paul airport hotel reopens after 5 years

After more than five years, the security checkpoint at the InterContinental Minneapolis-St. Paul Hotel has reopened, giving guests direct access to the main terminal of the airport.

And savvy travelers looking for a faster trip through security can use the checkpoint, too. There is one condition: It is carry-on luggage only.

The checkpoint, open from 5-10 a.m. daily, connects the hotel with Terminal 1 via a skybridge. It is across from Gate C25 and makes the InterContinental one of only two hotels in the country with on-site TSA access, said Benjamin Graves, president of Graves Hospitality, which developed and owns the hotel in conjunction with Intercontinental Real Estate Corp.

“We understand the value of efficiency and time-saving solutions in travel,” Graves said in a statement. “Our unique positioning with dedicated TSA connection to the airport makes our guest rooms, event spaces, and signature restaurants supremely accessible for travelers, meeting and event attendees, as well as local guests.”

There is no TSA PreCheck option at the hotel checkpoint, but it probably won’t be necessary. The checkpoint was lightly used after it and the hotel opened in July 2018. In the months that followed, TSA also endured staffing shortages and announced it would shut it down.

The hotel checkpoint “consistently has significantly lower passenger volume” than the other checkpoints at Terminal 1," a TSA spokeswoman told the Minnesota Star Tribune in November 2018.

The checkpoint officially closed in spring 2020 with the onset of the pandemic, said Jeff Lea, a spokesman with the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which owns and operates MSP.

“We continue to look for ways to maximize our efficiencies and improve our operations,” she said. “Over the past few years at MSP we’ve acquired advanced Computed Tomography scanners and Automated Screening Lanes and added to our workforce, changes that overall have increased our effectiveness and allowed us to reopen the Intercontinental Hotel checkpoint.”