Honolulu (HNL) TSA wait times
Daniel K. Inouye International Airport schedules 163 departures on an average day, and pushes up to 14 of them in a single hour. The checkpoint feels that: expect roughly 15 to 30 minutes in the standard lanes at the Thursday 11 am peak, and closer to 5 minutes at Monday 10 pm.
Security now Modelled
11min
Up 6 min since 3 am.
Standard line. It usually runs 10 to 15 minutes at this hour on a Monday.
The worst it gets at HNL is about 19 min, Thursday at 11 am. The quietest useful hour is Monday at 10 pm, about 5 min.
Tell us your flight below and we will work out when to leave.
A typical Monday.
That 11 is the standard line
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Standard 11minthe default
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PreCheck 4minsaves 7
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CLEAR 3minsaves 8
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 4:48 PM. That is 30 min driving, 10 min to park, about 9 min at security when you reach it around 5:28 PM, 8 min to walk to the gate and 15 min spare before boarding: 72 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 11min
Open to everyone. Usually 10 to 15.
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PreCheck 4min
Saves 7 min. TSA pre-approved travellers. Usually 5 to 10.
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CLEAR 3min
Saves 8 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 HNL, and the worst each one gets in its own busiest hour.
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Kahului (OGG) 13min peak
50 miles away. 72 flights a day.
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Lihue (LIH) 13min peak
51 miles away. 45 flights a day.
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Kona (KOA) 13min peak
82 miles away. 44 flights a day.
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Hilo (ITO) 9min peak
108 miles away. 19 flights a day.
Airlines at HNL
Which airline you are flying decides your terminal and checkpoint. This is the share of HNL's departures each one runs, from the published schedule.
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Hawaiian 37%
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Southwest 21%
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Alaska 21%
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United 9%
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Delta 6%
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American 5%
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 11 am today, at about 18 min. Fill in your flight above to see where your own trip lands.
The dark bar is now.
Busiest hours at HNL
Every block is one hour of one weekday at HNL, 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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| Tue | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sat |
Darker means a heavier checkpoint load. Built from 15,183 scheduled departures from HNL across three months of federal on-time records.
Hour by hour, Monday
| Hour | Departures | Standard | PreCheck |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 am | 2 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 4 am | 5 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 5 am | 8 | 10–15 min | 4 min |
| 6 am | 10 | 10–20 min | 5 min |
| 7 am | 10 | 10–20 min | 5 min |
| 8 am | 8 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 9 am | 8 | 5–15 min | 4 min |
| 10 am | 11 | 10–20 min | 5 min |
| 11 am | 13 | 15–25 min | 6 min |
| noon | 13 | 10–25 min | 6 min |
| 1 pm | 11 | 10–20 min | 5 min |
| 2 pm | 10 | 10–20 min | 4 min |
| 3 pm | 9 | 10–15 min | 4 min |
| 4 pm | 8 | 5–15 min | 4 min |
| 5 pm | 7 | 5–15 min | 3 min |
| 6 pm | 8 | 5–15 min | 4 min |
| 7 pm | 9 | 10–15 min | 4 min |
| 8 pm | 8 | 5–15 min | 4 min |
| 9 pm | 5 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 10 pm | 3 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
| 11 pm | 1 | 5–10 min | 3 min |
Questions people ask about HNL
How early should I get to HNL?
For a domestic flight out of Honolulu, plan to be inside the terminal about an hour before departure, and about an hour and a quarter for an international one. That covers a 15 to 30 minute checkpoint queue at the Thursday 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 HNL security?
Thursday around 11 am, when 14 departures' worth of passengers are converging on the checkpoint at once. The calmest hour with real traffic is Monday at 10 pm, at roughly 5 minutes.
Is TSA PreCheck worth it at HNL?
At the Thursday peak it turns a 15 to 30 minute queue into something closer to 7 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 HNL?
Daniel K. Inouye 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 3 am, 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.