The Best and Worst Times to Fly - April Edition
A living guide to beating the dreaded airport security queue
Have you ever found yourself stuck in an airport security queue, worried about missing your flight and contemplating hiring a car or even giving up on transportation entirely and walking to your destination? You are not alone, according to J.D. Power overall passenger satisfaction dropped 20 points in 2022, driven by rising costs and crowds. We put together this guide to help you beat the queue.
Have you ever wondered when the best time to arrive at the airport is? It is a common misconception that the wait times in security queues remain the same throughout the day. After analysing 9240 wait times from 57 of the largest airports globally, we can confirm that certain times of the day are better or worse for flying. Our analysis is divided into three sections: United States, Europe, and Canada. The chart in each section represents the aggregated data for a 24-hour period spanning from 12:00 am to 11:00 pm.
Disclaimer: It's important to note that the data window for our analysis is only for the month of March and may not necessarily be an accurate predictor of future trends. Our analysis is based on averages and individual airports may experience significant variations in wait times. Furthermore, all of the data we used in our analysis was obtained from Qsensor.co.
Best and worst times to fly in the United States
This is what an average day looks like when you combine the TSA wait times from 26 of the busiest airports in the United States. The data takes into account wait times for General, TSA PreCheck, and Clear lines.
Between 5:00 am and 10:00 am, the TSA wait times reach their highest levels. During this period, the average wait time is 11 minutes, with a peak of 12 minutes at 6:00 am. Expect wait times to increase after 1pm and with a peak of 11 minutes at 4pm. The busiest afternoon period is between 4pm and 6pm, with wait times of around 11 minutes.
Undoubtedly the worst time to be at an airport in the US is during the morning rush. As everyone rushes to catch those early morning commuter flights, airport infrastructure struggles to deal with the surge and you are left waiting amongst your fellow bleary eyed passengers.
The most favourable conditions are between 11am and 1pm or after 7pm where wait times dip below the 10 minute mark.
Average wait times for each part of the day:
Morning (12am - 11am): 8 minutes
Afternoon (12pm - 6pm): 11 minutes
Night (7pm - 11pm): 7 minutes
Best and worst times to fly in Europe
Similar to the United States, we monitored security wait times at 26 of the most bustling airports in Europe during the month of March. The first thing you might notice is that overall security wait times are significantly less than in the United States. The average wait time across a 24 hour period in the US is 8.62 minutes, in Europe it is half at 4.38 minutes.
The least favourable period to fly is between 5am and 10am with a 6 minute average wait time and a peak of 7 minutes at 10am. Whilst in the US, wait times drop off past 9am, in Europe the drop off does not happen until 11am.
During the afternoon, the security wait times reach their highest point at 5:00 pm, with an estimated wait time of 6 minutes. This peak period is quite abrupt and brief, beginning at 4:00 pm and ending at 6:00 pm, during which you can anticipate an average wait time of approximately 6 minutes.
The best times to fly to avoid the queues are from 12pm to 3pm or after 7pm. During those intervals, on average you will wait 5 minutes or less.
Average wait times for each part of the day:
Morning (12am - 11am): 4 minutes
Afternoon (12pm - 6pm): 6 minutes
Night (7pm - 11pm): 3 minutes
Unlike the US and Canada, Europe does not have one consistent system for handling airport security. Each airport is left to implement their own system. Do you think that results in a better service for customers? Leave a comment below.
Best and worst times to fly in Canada
We tracked the CATSA wait times for the 5 busiest airports in Canada: Toronto, Vancouver, Montréal, Calgary and Edmonton. The CATSA seems to run a tight ship, wait times were lower than both the US and Europe, even at mega airports such as Toronto that manage 50 million passengers per year. The peak wait time for Toronto was just 7 minutes at 4am.
Canadian’s must be early risers as the daily peak wait time of 7 minutes is at 5am. The worst period to fly is between 4am and 8am where wait times sit around 6-7 minutes. One big difference compared to the US and Europe is that we d not see a late afternoon peak. Wait times never go much above 5 minutes past 9am. Our guess is that the morning rush is the only time Canadian airport infrastructure is challenged. If you have a better explanation then leave a comment below.
The best times to fly is between 10am and 1pm and anytime after 6pm. Although generally speaking, after 9am wait times are rarely more than 5 minutes.
Average wait times for each part of the day:
Morning (12am - 11am): 5 minutes
Afternoon (12pm - 6pm): 4 minutes
Night (7pm - 11pm): 3 minutes
Conclusion
There are many that swear by early morning flights and intuitively it makes sense, however unless your flight departs at 3am-4am, it is the worst time to fly if you want to avoid queues and crowds.
For all three regions the worst period to fly is between 5am and 10am. The surge of passengers taking those early flights pushes foot traffic from 0 to 100 in the space of an hour. A general rule of thumb is the more flights scheduled to depart around the same time as yours, the longer the security queue will be. Let's take Amsterdam Airport Schiphol as an example. On April 14th, there are more than 100 departing flights scheduled between 5:00 am and 9:00 am, with 12 of them scheduled at 7:00 am alone. This is the busiest time of day for the airport, with no other period experiencing such a significant flurry of activity.
The second period to avoid is late afternoon between 4pm to 6pm. Likely as a result of people heading home after a day’s work. However, wait times in the afternoon are approximately 10% less than in the morning. If you have an upcoming business trip, it may be advantageous to take a late flight the day before rather than an early flight on the day of your trip.
It is worth checking the departing flights board on the airports website to see where the peaks and troughs are. At Qsensor we report both current and historical waiting times. To get an idea of historical wait times for a specific day, such as Wednesday, you can simply select that day and view the corresponding data.
It is also interesting to note that average security wait times for airports in the United States are twice as long as those in Europe and Canada. Several airports in the United Sates have wait times that exceed 45 minutes for extended periods each day. European and Canadians, count yourself lucky.
A noteworthy advantage that the United States and Canada have over Europe is that they have centralised agencies that manage airport security, namely the TSA and CATSA, respectively. This means that travellers can purchase TSA Pre-Check or Trusted Traveler and reduce their wait times in security queues across the country. In another blog, we will be doing an analysis of how much of an impact these services have.
Fortunately, security queue wait times were generally low in March, which is expected during the travel offseason. However, as travel picks up in the summer, we may see wait times increase from April onwards.
Topics for upcoming blogs, subscribe now for updates:
The best and worst airports for TSA wait times in the US
The best and worst airports for security wait times in Europe
The best and worst times to fly April edition
A comprehensive breakdowns of individual airports