If you're least favorite part about flying is waiting in the TSA security line, you might want to pick your departure airport wisely. Surprisingly, at some major hubs, you can be through screening in less time than it takes to order a coffee.
Travel Bulletin analyzed TSA wait times and passenger volume at the 50 busiest airports in the U.S. The average wait across all 50 was 9.9 minutes. At these 10, it was less than 6 minutes.
In this article
The 10 Airports With the Shortest TSA Waits
1. San Antonio International Airport (SAT)
San Antonio had the shortest wait in the study. For comparison, travelers at New York's JFK wait an average of 23.1 minutes, more than six times as long.
Average wait: 3.7 minutes
2. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)
New Orleans sees about 754 passengers per hour at security and has a surprisingly short wait time.
Average wait: 4.1 minutes
3. William P. Hobby Airport (HOU)
The smaller Houston airport is tied with New Orleans. The city's larger airport, George Bush Intercontinental, averages 13.6 minutes, more than three times as long.
Average wait: 4.1 minutes
4. Kansas City International Airport (MCI)
Kansas City handles about 754 passengers per hour at security with an average wait time under 5 minutes.
Average wait: 4.2 minutes
5. San Francisco International Airport (SFO)
SFO moves about 3,217 passengers per hour, the seventh-highest volume in the study, and still has the fifth-shortest wait. Orlando International handles slightly fewer travelers and averages 9 minutes, double SFO's wait.
Average wait: 4.5 minutes
6. Pittsburgh International Airport (PIT)
Pittsburgh processes about 758 passengers per hour with a wait time less than 5 minutes.
Average wait: 4.6 minutes
7. Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW)
This Fort Myers airport has the third-lowest passenger volume in the study, about 579 per hour.
Average wait: 5.4 minutes
8. Nashville International Airport (BNA)
Nashville sees about 1,408 passengers per hour, making it one of the busier airports on this list.
Average wait: 5.4 minutes
9. Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW)
Midway is the faster Chicago option by a wide margin. O'Hare averaged 20.2 minutes, the second-longest wait in the study.
Average wait: 5.7 minutes
10. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG)
CVG has the fourth-lowest passenger volume of the 50 airports, about 639 per hour.
Average wait: 5.9 minutes
What These Airports Have in Common
Smaller crowds help. The study found that every additional 1,000 passengers per hour lined up with about 2.3 more minutes of waiting, on average. Eight of these 10 airports handle fewer than 1,000 passengers per hour at security. San Francisco and Nashville are the exceptions, and San Francisco shows a high-volume airport can still move quickly.
Make a Short Line Even Shorter
Check the MyTSA app before you leave. It estimates waits by hour using reports from real travelers.
Look into a Trusted Traveler program like TSA PreCheck and enroll in Touchless ID.
Spend the time you save in an airport lounge.
Wait times come from TSA's MyTSA app estimates, based on traveler reports from mid-June to mid-August 2026. Passenger volumes come from TSA checkpoint throughput data for the same period. See the full study.
