Here’s How to Check TSA Wait Times to Prevent You Missing Your Next Flight During the Partial Government Shutdown

A dispute over federal funding for the Department of Homeland Security is starting to feel very real for millions of air travelers who are finding that lines to get through TSA security checkpoints at airports across the country are growing longer and longer.

With frontline TSA officers forced to work without pay, staffing shortages are becoming increasingly common. Unfortunately, there seems to be no end in sight to when the disagreement between Democratic and Republican lawmakers might be resolved.

Surprisingly, the TSA has, until now, largely operated without much disruption, but that all changed on Sunday when a flood of Spring Break travelers collided with TSA officers missing their first full paycheck.

The result was hours-long TSA lines at several major airports, most notably Houston Hobby, where travelers were warned to expect wait times of up to three hours.

Delays were also reported in New Orleans, at Atlanta Hartsfield, and Miami International.

The best advice during this partial shutdown is to arrive at the airport in plenty of time and to pack lots of patience… let’s just say that now is most definitely not the time to practice ‘airport theory.’

There are, however, ways you can check just how bad the situation on the ground is, and potentially save yourself from needlessly standing around the airport concourse for hours on end.

The simplest method is to download the official MyTSA mobile app, which provides estimated live wait times for airports across the country.

After downloading the app, simply click on the ‘My Airports’ tab at the bottom of the homepage and then tap the blue ‘Search Airports’ button to quickly access your airport of choice.

Once you’ve selected your airport, you’ll be presented with a screen that shows the estimated wait time, presented in intervals of 15 minutes. This data is an average of every TSA checkpoint at any given airport, so you might find that one checkpoint has a much longer wait than another checkpoint.

Below this data, you’ll also find a graph that shows the typical wait time for any given time and date. It’s worth bearing in mind, however, that this information is based on historical data, and it might not be accurate in planning when to arrive at the airport during the shutdown.

Another method is to look at the official website of the airport you’ll be traveling from. Although not every airport provides live TSA wait times, the ones that do generally break down the wait time by individual checkpoint.

Some of the big airports that provide this data include Atlanta Hartsfield, New York JFK, Newark, Philadelphia, Dallas Fort Worth, and Denver.

There are some things worth thinking about, even if you’ve checked the MyTSA app and the airport website for estimated TSA wait times:

• The situation can change rapidly, and shift changeovers can be a particularly difficult point. Unfortunately, the TSA won’t really know how many staff are going to turn up for their shift until the last moment.
• Airports have different busy periods when TSA lines are longer, with or without a shutdown. The MyTSA app will give a good indication of when these times are.

The good news is that despite an attempt by former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to temporarily shutter TSA PreCheck late last month before the White House reversed her decision, PreCheck lanes remain open across the country.

The TSA has warned that it could suspend PreCheck on a case-by-case basis, depending on just how bad staffing shortages get on any given day, but, so far at least, these lanes have remained open.