Usually wont to complain about anything involving airport travel, we must give Chicago O'Hare International Airport credit where it's due. According to a new study by data collection experts at SOAX, our very own travel hub boasts the shortest average TSA wait times across the country at just over 2 minutes. That's in addition to being one of the most well-connected airports in the world. Now those are numbers to be proud of!
To come up with the ranking, the company analyzed data from Qsensor on security wait times at America's 31 largest airports, specifically gathering information from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics on airports with over 10 million passengers in 2023.
In addition to O'Hare at the bottom of the list of longest wait times, Chicago's other travel hub, Midway International Airport, also appears on the ranking at No. 17. The on-site average security line wait time? Nine minutes and 4 seconds.
Fort Lauderdale in South Florida topped the survey, boasting the longest TSA wait times in the U.S: A whopping 15 minutes and 27 seconds.
Another fun fact unveiled by the survey—the average security lines rarely exceed 20 minutes, even on the busiest travel days.
"While this varies for each airport, the busiest day for security lines is Wednesday, and the quietest is Saturday," said Stepan Solovev, CEO and co-founder of SOAX, in an official statement. "Around 6am is when you'll find the longest lines, with the average traveler waiting 13 minutes and four seconds."
The expert also offered tips to cut down the length of your airport security experiences: Check if there are screening time reservations or paid services like airline fast track and TSA PreCheck, for example. One more suggestion: Make sure to have all your liquids and electronics properly stored before reaching the front of the line.
America’s largest airports with the longest average TSA wait times
- Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport: 15:27
- Charlotte Douglas International Airport: 15:06
- Los Angeles International Airport: 14:29
- San Diego International Airport: 14:14
- John F. Kennedy International Airport: 12:54
- Harry Reid International Airport: 12:01
- Austin–Bergstrom International Airport: 11:49
- Salt Lake City International Airport: 11:39
- San Francisco International Airport: 11:23
- Baltimore/Washington International Airport: 10:31