The 10 US airports with the longest security wait times — and the 10 with the shortest

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.

2. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport — Kenner, Louisiana (tie)

10. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport — Hebron, Kentucky

46. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport — Atlanta, Georgia