How early should I get to the airport?
Pick your airport and your flight time. This works backwards through every step between your front door and the gate, using the checkpoint load at the hour you would actually arrive.
Leave-by for a 6 PM flight today
Worked examples at the busiest US airports, for a domestic flight at 6 PM with a 30-minute drive and your own car in the lot. Pick your own airport and time above to change any of it.
| Airport | Security | Door to gate | Leave home by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago (ORD) | 27 min | 105 min | 4:15 PM |
| Denver (DEN) | 31 min | 109 min | 4:11 PM |
| Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) | 29 min | 107 min | 4:13 PM |
| Atlanta (ATL) | 24 min | 102 min | 4:18 PM |
| Phoenix (PHX) | 19 min | 97 min | 4:23 PM |
| Los Angeles (LAX) | 18 min | 96 min | 4:24 PM |
| Charlotte (CLT) | 23 min | 94 min | 4:26 PM |
| Las Vegas (LAS) | 14 min | 85 min | 4:35 PM |
Why the answer is not "two hours"
The two hour rule treats every airport, every hour and every traveller as the same. They are not. A Tuesday evening flight out of Boise and a Monday 7 am flight out of Atlanta are different problems, and the gap between them is bigger than the rule itself: Chicago peaks near 34 minutes in the standard lanes, while Fort Myers tops out around 13.
The calculator uses the departure schedule at your actual airport to work out how loaded the checkpoint is at the hour you would reach it, then adds the steps that come before and after it. Every one of those steps is shown above with its own minutes, so you can argue with any of them rather than trusting a single number.
What the steps mean
| Drive | Your own estimate. Traffic to a big airport at rush hour is usually the least predictable part of the whole chain. |
|---|---|
| Park and shuttle | Economy lot to terminal door, including waiting for the bus. Scaled to the size of the airport. Uncheck it if someone is dropping you at the curb. |
| Bag drop | Counter or kiosk queue. Airlines stop accepting checked bags 45 minutes before a domestic departure and 60 before an international one, and the calculator moves your leave-by time earlier if you would miss that cutoff. |
| Security | The modelled queue at the hour you arrive, not the airport's average. PreCheck and CLEAR run roughly a third of the standard line. |
| Walk to gate | Security exit to the gate, including the train at airports that have one. |
| At the gate | Gates close 15 minutes before a domestic departure and 30 before an international one. Being at the airport is not the deadline; being at the gate is. |
Security minutes are modelled from published flight schedules, not measured. Here is exactly how.