Spring break travel and staffing shortages on the Transportation Safety Administration have hit US airports with a devastating one-two punch this week, significantly on the security checkpoints. Private accounts on social media have reported wait instances of eight hours or extra.

🚨FYI in the event you’re attempting to fly out of IAH: my daughter has been in TSA line there for 8hours now and nonetheless not by way of safety. Missed flight. Sleeping at airport to verify she doesn’t miss her rebooked flight tomorrow am. Nightmare. https://t.co/VPia8a5zsx

— Julie Nelson (@JulieNelsonKARE) March 24, 2026

Understaffed airports throughout the US are actually being assisted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The White Home deployed ICE brokers on Monday to assist ease the staffing shortages brought on by TSA officers who’ve quit or stopped showing up for work. TSA workers have already missed a full paycheck because of the partial authorities shutdown, and now they might miss a second.

Do not be shocked in the event you get to the airport and see the safety line trailing out into the parking zone. It is easy to verify safety wait strains earlier than you permit for the airport, so you understand how lengthy it’s going to take to get from check-in to your gate. In case you have spring break or different deliberate air journey coming quickly, be taught how one can verify safety line wait instances so you’ll be able to higher plan your journey to the airport.

Examine the official TSA app

The TSA maintains an app for cellular gadgets referred to as MyTSA (iOS and Android) that lists safety line wait instances for airports across the US. The app is pretty primary and now features a warning that “this web site shouldn’t be actively managed” because of the pause in federal funding, however it does embody loads of official TSA details about airline journey.

To verify the wait instances for particular US airports, faucet the My Airports tab on the backside of the app, then faucet “Search Airports.” You’ll be able to scroll by way of the alphabetical listing of airports or sort in an airport identify or code within the search bar on the high.

Faucet by way of to the airport of your alternative, and you will see the estimated safety wait time on the high of the display.

After I checked a number of the main US airports Tuesday afternoon — Los Angeles (LAX), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta (ATL), JFK in New York (JFK) and Ronald Reagan in DC (DCA) — most had comparatively low wait instances of 0 to fifteen or 15 to half-hour. Solely JFK had an estimate of 30 to 45 minutes.

These estimates are a far cry from the 2 to 4 hours that airports are advising vacationers to permit, however the instances on the MyTSA app largely matched the instances listed on airport web sites (see beneath). The exception was Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, which confirmed an estimate of 0-Quarter-hour on the MyTSA app, however barely longer instances on the airport web site.

The MyTSA app additionally consists of historic averages for every airport’s safety line wait instances by time of day.

Examine the airport web site

After I examined the TSA app, it did not listing particular terminals at any airports. It solely listed a time vary for “All Terminals.” If you’d like that type of detailed info, your greatest wager is to make use of the official airport web sites. Most main ones now supply estimated safety wait instances. Some airports put these estimated instances entrance and middle on their web sites; others require a bit of extra exploration.

Most airport web sites will escape the instances for particular terminals. At some larger airports, there’s usually fairly a disparity between the terminals. Listed here are the online pages for estimated safety wait strains for a number of the most frequently traveled airports within the US:

I wasn’t capable of finding safety line wait instances on the web sites for 2 of the busiest airports: O’Hare (ORD) in Chicago and Harry Reid Worldwide Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas. For these, you may want to make use of the TSA app.

Save your spot within the safety line

Quite a few airports now permit vacationers to order a selected time within the safety line. At SeaTac Airport in Seattle, you make a Spot Saver reservation and go to a specifically marked entrance to the safety checkpoint listed in your reservation. An worker scans the barcode you had been emailed, and also you’re ushered to the entrance. At SeaTac, you will be as much as Quarter-hour earlier than or after your Spot Saver reservation, since airport timing is hard to estimate.

This is a listing of a few of these reservation websites. You’ll be able to seek for your airport identify and “reserve safety line spot” or one thing much like see in case your airport additionally has a program.

• Denver Worldwide Airport (DEN): DEN Reserve
• Orlando Worldwide Airport (MCO): MCO Reserve
• Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport (SEA): Spot Saver
• Phoenix Sky Harbor Worldwide Airport (PHX): PHX Reserve
• Minneapolis-St. Paul Worldwide Airport (MSP): MSP Reserve