Anchorage (ANC) TSA wait times
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport schedules 58 departures on an average day, and pushes up to 4 of them in a single hour. The checkpoint feels that: expect roughly 10 to 20 minutes in the standard lanes at the Friday 10 pm peak, and closer to 5 minutes at Sunday 3 am.
Security now Modelled
8min
Down 2 min since 5 am.
Standard line. It usually runs 5 to 15 minutes at this hour on a Monday.
The worst it gets at ANC is about 13 min, Friday at 10 pm. The quietest useful hour is Sunday at 3 am, about 5 min.
Tell us your flight below and we will work out when to leave.
A typical Monday.
That 8 is the standard line
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Standard 8minthe default
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PreCheck 3minsaves 5
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CLEAR 2minsaves 6
When should you leave?
Worked from the wait actually running at this checkpoint at the hour you will be here, not a fixed buffer.
Example. For a 6:00 PM domestic flight today, leave home about 4:57 PM. That is 30 min driving, 6 min to park, about 7 min at security when you reach it around 5:33 PM, 5 min to walk to the gate and 15 min spare before boarding: 63 minutes door to gate. Change any of it below for your own flight.
Enter your flight details above to work out your exact departure time.
Leave home by
Trip timeline
Kept on this device, so it is waiting for you next time.
Which security line?
The three ways through the checkpoint at this airport, what each is running right now, and what the faster ones save you.
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Standard 8min
Open to everyone. Usually 5 to 15.
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PreCheck 3min
Saves 5 min. TSA pre-approved travellers. Usually 0 to 5.
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CLEAR 2min
Saves 6 min. Biometric check, then to the front. Usually 0 to 5.
PreCheck and CLEAR are separate programmes. PreCheck is a lighter screening you qualify for; CLEAR verifies who you are and walks you to the front of whichever line you are already entitled to use.
Another airport nearby?
Airports within driving distance of ANC, and the worst each one gets in its own busiest hour.
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Cordova (CDV) 9min peak
80 miles away. 2 flights a day.
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Kodiak (ADQ) 9min peak
126 miles away. 2 flights a day.
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Fairbanks (FAI) 9min peak
130 miles away. 12 flights a day.
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King Salmon (AKN) 9min peak
144 miles away. 1 flights a day.
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Dillingham (DLG) 9min peak
164 miles away. 1 flights a day.
Airlines at ANC
Which airline you are flying decides your terminal and checkpoint. This is the share of ANC's departures each one runs, from the published schedule.
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Alaska 72%
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Delta 14%
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United 9%
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American 3%
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Hawaiian 1%
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Southwest 1%
For the terminal your gate is in, check your airline's boarding pass or the airport's official map. We do not model terminal-by-terminal waits yet, and we will not guess at them.
Is another time better?
The checkpoint is busiest around 1 pm today, at about 11 min. Fill in your flight above to see where your own trip lands.
The dark bar is now.
Busiest hours at ANC
Every block is one hour of one weekday at ANC, shaded by how much of the airport's own peak load the checkpoint is carrying. This is the measured half of the page: it comes from the published flight schedule, not from an estimate.
| Day | 12a | 1a | 2a | 3a | 4a | 5a | 6a | 7a | 8a | 9a | 10a | 11a | 12p | 1p | 2p | 3p | 4p | 5p | 6p | 7p | 8p | 9p | 10p | 11p |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Sat |
Darker means a heavier checkpoint load. Built from 5,418 scheduled departures from ANC across three months of federal on-time records.
Hour by hour, Monday
| Hour | Departures | Standard | PreCheck |
|---|---|---|---|
| midnight | 2 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 1 am | 1 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 3 am | 1 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 4 am | 3 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 5 am | 3 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 6 am | 2 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 7 am | 2 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 8 am | 3 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 9 am | 3 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 10 am | 2 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 11 am | 2 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| noon | 3 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 1 pm | 4 | 10–15 min | 4 min |
| 2 pm | 3 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 3 pm | 2 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 4 pm | 2 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 5 pm | 2 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 6 pm | 2 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 7 pm | 3 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 8 pm | 2 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 9 pm | 3 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 10 pm | 3 | 10–15 min | 4 min |
| 11 pm | 3 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
Questions people ask about ANC
How early should I get to ANC?
For a domestic flight out of Anchorage, plan to be inside the terminal about an hour before departure, and about an hour for an international one. That covers a 10 to 20 minute checkpoint queue at the Friday peak plus the walk to the gate. Outside the peak you can safely trim it; the calculator above works it out from your actual departure time.
What is the busiest time at ANC security?
Friday around 10 pm, when 4 departures' worth of passengers are converging on the checkpoint at once. The calmest hour with real traffic is Sunday at 3 am, at roughly 5 minutes.
Is TSA PreCheck worth it at ANC?
At the Friday peak it turns a 10 to 20 minute queue into something closer to 5 minutes. Over a five year membership that is worth it if you fly more than about three round trips a year through an airport this busy. The trusted traveller calculator prices it against your own flying.
When does security open at ANC?
Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport does not publish checkpoint opening hours in any national feed, so we will not invent them. What the schedule does show is that the first departures leave around midnight, and checkpoints generally open about two hours before the first flight of the day.
Flight schedule data: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, May 2026, July 2025 and December 2025. Wait minutes are modelled, not measured. Here is exactly how. Page rebuilt 24 August 2026.