Travelers at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) are experiencing relatively normal TSA checkpoint wait times averaging 10 to 30 minutes as of late March 2026, a marked improvement from chaotic scenes over the weekend when some lines stretched up to two or three hours amid staffing shortages caused by the partial government shutdown.
The airport, a major hub for Southwest Airlines serving the Baltimore-Washington region, issued repeated advisories urging passengers to arrive at least three hours before scheduled departures after unusually long security lines developed on Sunday, March 22 and 23. On that Sunday, high TSA officer call-out rates — reported at 38.1% at BWI compared to a national average around 11-12% — forced closures of checkpoints and led to significant backups, with some passengers waiting over an hour even in CLEAR lanes.
