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Travel insights from Andrea Sedlacek, editor of The Compass
Which U.S. Airport Has the Shortest TSA Security Wait Time?
The answer is Salt Lake City International (SLC).
That’s according to a study done by Upgraded Points that looked at the total passenger boardings in 2018 at the 25 busiest airports in the U.S. as well as the security line wait times published by our favorite government authority, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Here are the five airports with the shortest TSA wait times:
- Salt Lake City International (SLC) – 9.1 minutes
- Washington Dulles International (IAD) – 10.5 minutes
- Boston Logan International (BOS) – 10.6 minutes
- Minneapolis-St. Paul International (MSP) – 13 minutes
- TIE: Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) / Detroit Metropolitan (DTW) – 13.2 minutes
On the flipside, here are the five airports with the longest TSA wait times. I blame these airports for my parents’ obsession for getting to the airport approximately 16 hours before a flight when I was growing up:
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) – 23.1 minutes
- George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) – 19.8 minutes
- Miami International (MIA) – 19.6 minutes
- Baltimore-Washington International (BWI) – 18.2 minutes
- McCarran International (LAS) – 17.3 minutes
Pro tip: You can check the TSA wait time on TSA’s app or on the U.S. Customs & Border Protection’s site, but CBP only lets you choose from what they’ve deemed the busiest airports. You can also check the airport’s own website, but based on my investigation into my hometown airport, General Mitchell International in Milwaukee, this info may be missing or really hard to find. There are also sites like iFly.com (lots of pop-ups make for a not great experience) and tsawaittimes.com (looks pretty slick on mobile) where you can get this info. If you still don’t know and have a flight out of Newark, take my parents’ advice and basically camp overnight at the airport just in case.
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