Miami International Airport and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport have the two longest wait times for security and passport control among the nation’s largest airports, according to a survey examining Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Protection data over the past year.
At MIA, which ranked No. 1 in longest wait times, passengers had to wait, on average, 46:57 minutes — 24.54 minutes getting through security and another 22:03 minutes for passport control, according to a study done by Bounce, a luggage storage service. The study examined TSA and Customs data from 39 airports between March 8, 2021, and March 7, 2022.
At Fort Lauderdale, which ranked No. 2, passengers had to wait, on average, 46:41 minutes — 18:18 for security and another 28:23 minutes for passport control.
Other airports with long wait times were No. 3 San Francisco (45:56 minutes), No. 4 John F. Kennedy (44:54 minutes) and No. 5 O’Hare International in Chicago (39:26 minutes), the survey found.
A spokesperson for MIA said the prolonged wait times were a result of increased air traffic and not enough staff.
“Airport security checkpoint wait times are the result of staffing levels by U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Transportation Security Administration in response to airport passenger traffic. CBP and the TSA have notified us that they are both at their maximum staffing allotment at MIA,” the airport said in a statement.
The airport also noted that MIA has had the most seat capacity growth of the 20 largest airports in the world when comparing March 2019 (pre-pandemic) to March 2022, according to data from the Official Airline Guide. MIA’s seat capacity grew by 17 percent to 2,748,879 during this period.
In 2021, 37.3 million passengers came through MIA.
Airport officials said passengers can significantly decrease their wait times by signing up for expedited screening services like TSA PreCheck, CLEAR, Global Entry and Mobile Passport Control.
MIA has been making a comeback from the pandemic downturn — in November, the airport recorded its first month of passenger growth in 19 months, ticketing 3.9 million passengers in November 2021, up from 3.7 million in 2019.
Spring break travel also boosted passenger traffic — and wait times — at MIA. On Sunday, March 20, 168,000 passengers moved through MIA, making it the airport’s busiest single travel day on record. The record crowds prompted airport officials to recommend travelers arrive three hours before a domestic flight and 3.5 hours before an international flight.
Fort Lauderdale has seen its flight traffic grow due to a 2014 expansion project and an increasing number of flights from discount carriers like Frontier and Spirit.
“The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood international Airport (FLL) is one of the fastest-recovering U.S. airports, serving 28.1 million passengers in 2021,” an FLL spokesperson said. “However, as travel continues to rebound, wait times for TSA and CBP processing at FLL may vary depending on staffing levels, peak periods and scheduled flight changes, among other factors.”
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