Every number on this site is either a live reading or a labeled prediction. Here's exactly how each one is made.

Two kinds of numbers

Live readings and predictions — never mixed up

Livemeans we read the number directly from an airport's own official checkpoint feed — where airports publish one, currently including Atlanta (ATL), Los Angeles (LAX), New York (JFK, EWR, LGA), Miami (MIA) and San Francisco (SFO). Those numbers carry a Live feed pill on the site, and they only wear that label when the real feed actually answered.

Everywhere else you see a Predictedwait: our own model, built from that day's scheduled flight volume (FIDS flight-schedule data) plus typical checkpoint patterns for the time of day and day of the week. If schedule data is briefly unavailable, the estimate falls back to those typical time-of-day patterns alone. Either way it is always labeled as a prediction. We never dress a prediction up as a live reading. For the full methods writeup and what this pipeline shows across the country, see our data & studies.

How often it refreshes

Live feeds re-poll roughly every two minutes

When you're looking at a live airport, the page re-checks the feed about every two minutes, and the timestamp under the board tells you when the number last changed — no guessing about staleness. Predicted waits recompute through the day as the flight schedule progresses, so a quiet 2 pm and a slammed 6 am get different answers.

The Leave-By calculator

Three pieces, added honestly

Your Leave-By Timecounts backward from your flight using three inputs: your drive with Google's live-traffic routing, the current security wait at your airport, and a walk-to-gate buffer. All three are estimates, so the result is an estimate too — a good planning number, not a promise. Build in your own cushion.

Editorial standards & corrections

How the written guides are made

Everything on this site is produced and reviewed by the TSA Wait Times team — organization-level authorship, no ghost bylines. Facts in our guides are checked against primary sources: tsa.gov, cbp.gov, and airlines' own contract-of-carriage and fee pages. Each guide shows its published and updated dates. When we confirm an error, we fix it on the page and refresh the updated date.

What we are not

Independent, and clear about it

TSA Wait Times is an independent site. We are not affiliated with the TSA, any airport authority, or any airline. We can't help with PreCheck applications, lost items, or complaints — for those, contact the TSA directly or your airline.

More about who we are on the About page, and the fine print in our Terms & Data.