The long-held wisdom of arriving early for a flight is now being challenged, as airports across the U.S. report that passengers showing up too far in advance are inadvertently worsening security delays.
Following weeks of frustratingly long lines at checkpoints and widespread tales of missed flights, travelers, understandably anxious, are now arriving hours before their scheduled departures. However, this preemptive measure is creating new bottlenecks, particularly during peak times, and in some instances, causing other passengers to miss their flights.
John Glenn International Airport in Columbus, Ohio, has specifically cautioned against this trend, even issuing clear guidance: "90 minutes before departure is all you need."
The airport attributes these premature arrivals to the funding standoff on Capitol Hill, which has led to crowded security areas, but notes that the early birds are only adding to the overall disruption.
“Arriving too early can actually create longer lines right when we open,” the airport said in a social media post Thursday. “Spacing out arrival times helps keep things moving smoothly for everyone.”
It's Airport Dad's moment — finally
In some ways, the airport chaos is turning into a full circle moment for “Airport Dad” — a humorous TikTok and social media take on the dad who always makes sure the family is out the door, parked, through security and positioned at the correct gate well before anyone else, with paper boarding passes in hand.
Airline customers aren't laughing, at least right now. They're facing record wait times in a jumbled environment — the modern American airport — that can serve up assorted stresses and snafus on the best of days.
Amber Campbell said she missed a morning flight this week despite arriving at Baltimore-Washington International Airport more than three hours ahead of time.
“We noted several people in line with later afternoon flights," Campbell posted on Facebook. "There was no organization or consideration for those of us missing flights vs people with later flights. We missed our flight by ten minutes!”
What's confusing for air passengers is that it's hard to predict which airports will be plagued next by security lines spilling out of terminals.
Checkpoints in some places are beyond two hours
The government shutdown straining Transportation Security Administration staffing has ballooned checkpoint wait times beyond two hours at some major airports. George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston has become the biggest chokepoint for travelers with four-hour security lines.
“An absolute nightmare,” said Arthur Tsebetzis, while standing in a line Friday that snaked through the main terminal and spilled outside Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta.
Those are by far the worst-case scenarios. Many airports — like the one in Ohio — have been seeing wait times comparable with those in normal times. That's why airlines say the best advice for passengers right now is to check TSA wait times before their scheduled departures.
It’s a bit reminiscent of the days of “ panic buying ” during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
“It’s human nature. You don’t have control over what’s going on at an airport,” said Shari Botwin, a Philadelphia clinical social worker who counsels people about anxiety.
“There’s so much media attention about the chaos at airports,” she said. “They might not trust when someone says, ’Well, you don’t need to come out early anymore.'"
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