Trust · Editorial standards

Editorial standards & data integrity

People plan real trips around these numbers, and journalists cite our data. So we hold ourselves to one rule above all others: we never dress up a guess as a fact. This page explains exactly how we source, label, verify, and correct everything we publish — and how we stay independent while doing it.

Where our wait numbers come from

Every security wait we show is one of two clearly different things. When an airport publishes its own checkpoint feed, we read it directly, show it as Live, and stamp the minute it updated. When there is no live feed, we show a Predictedwait modeled from that day's scheduled flights and typical historical patterns — and we label it as predicted, every time. The two are never blended into a vague single number. Read the full methodology or the plain-language how it works page.

The live-vs-predicted labeling rule

A “Live” label is a promise: the number came from an official checkpoint feed within the last update cycle. If a feed goes quiet or we can't verify it, the page falls back to a predicted estimate and says so — it does not keep flashing a stale number dressed as live. Our structured data (schema.org Dataset) carries the same honest distinction, so search engines see the same label you do.

How we research guides and studies

Our guides and data studies are built from primary sources — the TSA, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the FAA, Airports Council International, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and airlines' own published policies. We cite those sources on the page, date what we publish, and record the time period each figure covers. Where two reputable sources disagree, we prefer the primary one and note the discrepancy rather than quietly picking a number.

How we use automation and AI

We are a data-and-software product, so we use automation heavily and openly: our forecasting model computes predicted waits, and we use software tooling to help research and draft content at the scale of 150+ airports. What automation never does is invent facts. Statistics are traced to a real source, first-party figures are computed from our own data (not estimated by a language model), and published claims are reviewed at the editorial level before they ship. We do not publish AI-fabricated numbers, quotes, reviews, or credentials.

Corrections policy

If something is wrong, we want to fix it fast. When we confirm an error, we correct it, update the page's “Updated” date, and — for anything material — note what changed. Modeled predictions are refined continuously as we compare them against real waits; factual errors in guides or studies are treated as corrections, not silent edits.

Independence and funding

TSA Wait Times is an independent travel utility. We are not owned by, funded by, or affiliated with the TSA, any government agency, any airport authority, or any airline — we read the same public information you can and turn it into one fast answer. The site is supported by advertising and, where relevant, affiliate links. That support never influences a wait time, a ranking, or which airport comes out ahead in a study. Our data would be worthless to the people who rely on it if it did.

Our no-fabrication commitment

We would rather show less than show something invented. We don't fabricate statistics, star ratings, testimonials, author credentials, or social proof. Where we lack verified information — a specific data point, a social profile, a live feed — we leave it out rather than fill the gap with something that looks authoritative but isn't.