CLECleveland Hopkins
How long is the TSA security line at Cleveland airport (CLE) right now?
At 10:50 am Eastern Cleveland airport standard lines run 0 to 15 min. The longest standard line is Central Checkpoint, 0 to 15 min.
Wait time by checkpoint
| Checkpoint | Standard | PreCheck |
|---|---|---|
| Central Checkpoint | 0 to 15min | no lane |
| North Checkpoint | 0 to 15min | no lane |
| South Checkpoint | 0 to 15min | no lane |
Read from clevelandairport.com at 6 minutes ago, next read in 3
How busy Cleveland airport security usually is
People screened per hour at each checkpoint, averaged over 175 days of TSA counts, 22 March to 24 October 2026. Green is that checkpoint's quiet hours, red its peak. Find your checkpoint and look along the row for green.
| Checkpoint | 4a | 6a | 8a | 10 am, now | 12p | 2p | 4p | 6p | 8p | 10p | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Central Checkpoint | ||||||||||||||||||||
| FIS | ||||||||||||||||||||
| North Checkpoint | ||||||||||||||||||||
| South Checkpoint |
Tap a cell for its count.
Quiet for this checkpointIts busiest hourclosed or no count
On the counted days Cleveland airport screened passengers from 3 am to 8 pm. Across Cleveland airport the busiest hour is 5 am and the counts fall away after 4 pm. Central Checkpoint and South Checkpoint screen 72 percent of the people TSA counts at Cleveland airport, Central Checkpoint alone 39 percent. Most checkpoints peak before noon; FIS runs the other way at 3 pm. TSA counts people, not minutes, so this shows when a checkpoint is loaded, not how long you will stand in it.
Which day Cleveland airport is busiest
Sunday is Cleveland airport's busiest day of the week, about 17,000 people screened on an average one, 32 percent more than Saturday, the quietest.
| Rank | Day | People a day | Days counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sunday | 17,083 | 23 |
| 2 | Thursday | 16,850 | 23 |
| 3 | Friday | 16,704 | 23 |
| 4 | Monday | 16,143 | 23 |
| 5 | Wednesday | 14,018 | 25 |
| 6 | Tuesday | 12,971 | 23 |
| 7 | Saturday | 12,920 | 23 |
People screened at Cleveland airport on an average day of each kind, from TSA's counts, 22 March to 24 October 2026, with the days around each holiday left out.
Which month Cleveland airport is busiest
July was Cleveland airport's busiest month in TSA's counts, about 17,000 people a day, 20 percent more than April, the quietest. October, the latest month counted, ran 9 percent below July.
| Rank | Month | People a day | Days counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | July | 16,999 | 13 |
| 2 | June | 16,715 | 13 |
| 3 | March | 16,006 | 10 |
| 4 | October | 15,493 | 17 |
| 5 | May | 15,481 | 31 |
| 6 | August | 15,006 | 31 |
| 7 | September | 14,592 | 30 |
| 8 | April | 14,124 | 30 |
People screened at Cleveland airport on an average day of each month, holidays included, from TSA's counts, 22 March to 24 October 2026. March, June, July, and October rest on 10, 13, 13, and 17 counted days.
How Cleveland airport ran over the holidays
Each day around a holiday against the same day of the week in the three weeks either side, so the season does not read as the holiday. Thanksgiving and Christmas 2026 are not in TSA's counts yet; they run to 24 October 2026.
Memorial Day 2026
Thursday 21 to Tuesday 26 May: the busiest day was Thursday 21 May, 18,128 people, 5 percent above the Thursdays around it. Sunday 24 May was the lightest for its day of the week, 25 percent below the Sundays around it.
Labor Day 2026
Thursday 3 to Tuesday 8 September: the busiest day was Friday 4 September, 18,216 people, 15 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 6 September was the lightest for its day of the week, 26 percent below the Sundays around it.
Questions people ask
How busy is Cleveland airport today?
At 10:50 am Eastern Cleveland airport standard lines run 0 to 15 min. The longest standard line is Central Checkpoint, 0 to 15 min. By TSA's counts 10 am is usually a middling hour at Cleveland airport, about 770 people an hour across its checkpoints against 1,700 at the 5 am peak. On a normal day Cleveland airport screens about 15,000 people, 41st of the 432 airports TSA counts; its largest checkpoint is Central Checkpoint, with 39 percent of them.
Does PreCheck have a shorter line at Cleveland airport?
The Cleveland airport feed lists no open PreCheck lane at the moment; the sign above shows every lane it publishes.
Which Cleveland airport checkpoint is fastest right now?
At 10:50 am Eastern the shortest standard line is at Central Checkpoint, North Checkpoint and South Checkpoint, 0 to 15 min. The sign above lists every checkpoint and lane the airport publishes, longest and shortest alike.
How current is this number?
Cleveland Hopkins International Airport publishes the Cleveland airport wait times at clevelandairport.com and waittimes.io reads them every 10 minutes. The time on the sign is the last read, in Eastern time. A number older than 30 minutes says so, and a feed silent for 2 hours shows when it last published instead of a number. Nothing here is predicted.
When is TSA security at Cleveland airport quietest?
Over the 175 counted days, 22 March to 24 October 2026, Cleveland airport checkpoints screened the most people at 5 am. Between the rushes the counts are lowest at 1 pm, and they fall away after 4 pm. Each row of the map above is one checkpoint scaled to its own peak, so its green hours are the ones to aim for. Counts say when a checkpoint is loaded, not how long the line is.
What time does TSA open at Cleveland airport?
Over the 175 counted days, 22 March to 24 October 2026, Cleveland airport screened passengers from 3 am to 8 pm. North Checkpoint and South Checkpoint open first and Central Checkpoint and FIS run latest. These are the hours TSA counted people, not Cleveland airport's published checkpoint hours. Check the airport's own page before an early flight.
What is the busiest day of the week at Cleveland airport?
Sunday is Cleveland airport's busiest day of the week, about 17,000 people screened on an average one, 32 percent more than Saturday, the quietest. Averaged over 163 days of TSA counts, 22 March to 24 October 2026, with the days around each holiday left out.
Which month is busiest at Cleveland airport?
July was Cleveland airport's busiest month in TSA's counts, about 17,000 people a day, 20 percent more than April, the quietest. October, the latest month counted, ran 9 percent below July. Averaged over 175 days of TSA counts, 22 March to 24 October 2026. March, June, July, and October rest on 10, 13, 13, and 17 counted days.
How busy does Cleveland airport get on a holiday weekend?
Memorial Day 2026, Thursday 21 to Tuesday 26 May: the busiest day was Thursday 21 May, 18,128 people, 5 percent above the Thursdays around it. Sunday 24 May was the lightest for its day of the week, 25 percent below the Sundays around it. Labor Day 2026, Thursday 3 to Tuesday 8 September: the busiest day was Friday 4 September, 18,216 people, 15 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 6 September was the lightest for its day of the week, 26 percent below the Sundays around it. Each day is set against the same day of the week in the three weeks either side. Thanksgiving and Christmas 2026 are not in TSA's counts yet; they run to 24 October 2026.
Other airports
Every covered airport, ranked by its line right now, is on the national page, with the airports that have no live number here under it. The busiest airports by people screened lists every code TSA counts.
ATL, BOS, BWI, CLT, DAL, DCA, DFW, DTW, EWR, IAH, JAX, JFK, LGA, MCO, MIA, MSP, PHL, PHX, PIT, SEA, SFO, SLC
Where the numbers come from
- Wait times
- Published by Cleveland Hopkins International Airport at clevelandairport.com. We read the page every 10 minutes and show the time of the last read. A reading older than 30 minutes is marked as such.
- Usual busyness
- TSA's own hourly passenger counts per checkpoint, published weekly in its FOIA reading room. This page uses 175 days of counts, 22 March to 24 October 2026. Public domain.
- Who reads them
- Arcane Digital, which runs waittimes.io, reads every feed every 10 minutes with its own collector and stores the time of each read. The day's reads are checked every night for a feed that has stopped or thinned, and one person reads that report the next morning. Nobody types a number in.
- What we never do
- Predict a wait in minutes, or show an old number as if it were current.
- Every feed
- How each one is read, the TSA counts and who to write to: the sources page.