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Is your average airport security experience a quick walk through the screening area, or does the line often snake around multiple stanchions? The answer depends on where you're flying out of.
At the top 50 busiest airports in the US, the average security line wait time is 9.9 minutes, but TSA data shows that passengers can wait almost three times as long at some airports and as little as a few minutes at others.
The Trump administration is pushing to privatize airport security by expanding the TSA's Screening Partnership Program (SPP), which allows airports to use private contractors for screening instead of federal TSA officers.
The push comes as the agency has faced retention and workplace challenges, exacerbated by government shutdowns in 2025 and 2026 that forced TSA officers to work without pay for weeks.
Travel website Travel Bulletin examined the 50 busiest airports in the US to determine the ones with the longest and shortest average wait times. Travel Bulletin analyzed eight weeks of wait-time estimates from the MyTSA app and passenger-volume data from the FOIA Electronic Reading Room, covering mid-June to mid-August 2026.
Passengers traveling through San Francisco and Kansas City — the only two major SPP airports among the 20 total using private screeners — spend among the least amount of time in line.
Here are the 10 airports with the shortest average TSA wait times, followed by the 10 airports with the longest average waits.
1. San Antonio International Airport — San Antonio, Texas
Average wait time: 3.7 minutes
2. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport — Kenner, Louisiana (tie)
Average wait time: 4.1 minutes
2. William P. Hobby Airport — Houston, Texas (tie)
Average wait time: 4.1 minutes
4. Kansas City International Airport — Kansas City, Missouri
Average wait time: 4.2 minutes
5. San Francisco International Airport — San Francisco, California
Average wait time: 4.5 minutes
6. Pittsburgh International Airport — Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Average wait time: 4.6 minutes
7. Southwest Florida International Airport — Fort Myers, Florida (tie)
Average wait time: 5.4 minutes
7. Nashville International Airport — Nashville, Tennessee (tie)
Average wait time: 5.4 minutes
9. Chicago Midway International Airport — Chicago, Illinois
Average wait time: 5.7 minutes
10. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport — Hebron, Kentucky
Average wait time: 5.9 minutes
41. Philadelphia International Airport — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Average wait time: 12.9 minutes
42. Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport — Dallas, Texas
Average wait time: 13 minutes
43. San Diego International Airport — San Diego, California
Average wait time: 13.2 minutes
44. Portland International Airport — Portland, Oregon
Average wait time: 13.4 minutes
45. George Bush Intercontinental Airport — Houston, Texas
Average wait time: 13.6 minutes
46. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — Atlanta, Georgia
Average wait time: 14.1 minutes
47. Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport — Anchorage, Alaska
Average wait time: 16.3 minutes
48. Newark Liberty International Airport — Newark, New Jersey
Average wait time: 17.9 minutes
49. Chicago O'Hare International Airport — Chicago, Illinois
Average wait time: 20.2 minutes
50. John F. Kennedy International Airport — New York, New York
Average wait time: 23.1 minutes
