IAD Main Terminal security wait times: what to expect
From October 13 to November 9 we logged 27,415 security checkpoint readings at IAD Main Terminal. The standard lane averaged 5 minutes. 100% of standard-lane readings were 10 minutes or less, and none were over half an hour.
That is in line with IAD as a whole.
When the line is longest
The standard line at Main Terminal is longest around 9 PM, when it has averaged 5 minutes, and shortest around 1 AM, at 5 minutes. By day of the week, Monday has been the heaviest (6 minutes on average) and Friday the lightest (4 minutes).
| Time of day | Standard |
|---|---|
| Early morning (4–8 AM) | 5 min |
| Morning (8 AM–noon) | 5 min |
| Midday (noon–4 PM) | 5 min |
| Evening (4–8 PM) | 5 min |
| Night (8 PM–4 AM) | 5 min |
Average wait across the last 28 days. A dash means the lane is usually closed then.
PreCheck at Main Terminal
The feed for Main Terminal does not report a separate TSA PreCheck line, so the figures above cover the standard lane only.
How early to arrive
To plan your arrival, use the worst hour rather than the average: at Main Terminal that is 5 minutes in the standard lane around 9 PM. Allow that on top of your airline's check-in and bag-drop deadlines, and more on Mondays and holiday weekends. The live board above shows what the line is doing right now, and the chart projects the next 12 hours.
Where these numbers come from
Each airport publishes its own checkpoint wait estimates. This site reads them every minute and keeps every reading. Closed lanes are left out of the averages, and times are local to the airport. The averages above cover the last 28 days and are recalculated every hour. The posted wait is the airport's estimate, not a timed measurement, so treat it as a guide.
The full archive is free to download as an open dataset, and the about page explains who runs the site and why.