LAXLos Angeles
When is TSA security busiest at LAX?
TSA's counts over 175 days, 22 March to 24 October 2026, put LAX's busiest hour at 8 am, with the counts falling away after 10 pm. Los Angeles (LAX) publishes no live wait time, so this page carries no number for right now.
How busy LAX 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 | 7 am, now | 8a | 10a | 12p | 2p | 4p | 6p | 8p | 10p | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suites | ||||||||||||||||||||
| TBIT Main Checkpoint | ||||||||||||||||||||
| TBIT MSC - Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Terminal 1 - Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Terminal 1.5 – Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Terminal 3 - Delta One | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Terminal 3 - Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Terminal 4 - FIS | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Terminal 4 - Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Terminal 4A - Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Terminal 6 - Passenger | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Terminal 7 - Passenger |
Tap a cell for its count.
Quiet for this checkpointIts busiest hourclosed or no count
On the counted days LAX screened passengers from 3 am to 11 pm. Across LAX the busiest hour is 8 am and the counts fall away after 10 pm. Terminal 3 - Passenger, TBIT Main Checkpoint and Terminal 7 - Passenger screen 55 percent of the people TSA counts at LAX, Terminal 3 - Passenger alone 20 percent. Most checkpoints peak before noon; TBIT Main Checkpoint and Terminal 1.5 – Passenger run the other way at 9 pm, Terminal 4 - FIS at 3 pm and Suites at 2 pm. TSA counts people, not minutes, so this shows when a checkpoint is loaded, not how long you will stand in it.
Checkpoints and terminals at LAX
What Los Angeles says on its own site, in our words, with the page each fact comes from and the day we read it. Airports move airlines and lanes, so check the linked page before you fly.
Where the checkpoints are
Every LAX terminal has been joined to the others past security since 2023, about two miles on foot from Terminal 1 to Terminal 8. The American Eagle remote terminal is reached by an airside shuttle bus from Terminals 4 and 6. From flylax.com, read 15 October 2026.
The airport's FAQ page still says that a passenger connecting from Terminals 1 to 3 or Tom Bradley to Terminals 5 to 8 has to leave security. From flylax.com, read 15 October 2026.
Terminal 5 is closed for construction until 2028. From flylax.com, read 15 October 2026.
Which terminal each airline uses
Where each airline checks in. Delta checks in at Terminal 3 and departs from Terminal 2, and the list's notes say Southwest, Frontier, Sun Country, Cayman and VivaAerobus bus passengers from Terminal 1 to Tom Bradley without saying which flights. From flylax.com, read 15 October 2026.
- Terminal 1
- Cayman Airways, Frontier, JetBlue, Southwest, Sun Country, VivaAerobus
- Terminal 2
- LATAM, Virgin Atlantic, WestJet
- Terminal 3
- Aeromexico, Delta
- Terminal 4
- American, British Airways, Contour, Japan Airlines
- Terminal 6
- Air Canada, Alaska, Breeze, Hawaiian, Horizon, Porter, Southern Airways Express
- Terminals 7 and 8
- United and United Express
- Tom Bradley International Terminal (Terminal B)
- Aer Lingus, Air China, Air France, Air New Zealand, Air Premia, Air Tahiti Nui, ANA, Asiana, Austrian, Avianca, Cathay Pacific, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Condor, Copa, EgyptAir, El Al, Emirates, EVA Air, Fiji Airways, Finnair, Flair, French Bee, Iberia, ITA Airways, KLM, Korean Air, Level, LOT Polish, Lufthansa, Philippine Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Saudia, SAS, Sichuan Airlines, Singapore Airlines, STARLUX, Swiss, TAP Air Portugal, Turkish Airlines, Volaris, Xiamen Airlines, ZIPAIR
Which day LAX is busiest
Sunday is LAX's busiest day of the week, about 104,000 people screened on an average one, 22 percent more than Tuesday, the quietest.
| Rank | Day | People a day | Days counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sunday | 103,610 | 23 |
| 2 | Friday | 101,857 | 23 |
| 3 | Thursday | 100,440 | 23 |
| 4 | Monday | 97,717 | 23 |
| 5 | Wednesday | 91,674 | 25 |
| 6 | Saturday | 88,846 | 23 |
| 7 | Tuesday | 85,273 | 23 |
People screened at LAX 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 LAX is busiest
Every month at LAX came within 13 percent of the busiest, July, at about 105,000 people a day. October, the latest month counted, ran 9 percent below July.
| Rank | Month | People a day | Days counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | July | 105,007 | 13 |
| 2 | June | 102,741 | 13 |
| 3 | March | 99,170 | 10 |
| 4 | August | 96,361 | 31 |
| 5 | October | 95,971 | 17 |
| 6 | May | 94,155 | 31 |
| 7 | April | 92,695 | 30 |
| 8 | September | 91,840 | 30 |
People screened at LAX 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 LAX 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 Friday 22 May, 108,756 people, 5 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 24 May was the lightest for its day of the week, 10 percent below the Sundays around it.
Labor Day 2026
Thursday 3 to Tuesday 8 September: the busiest day was Friday 4 September, 111,678 people, 14 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 6 September was the lightest for its day of the week, 9 percent below the Sundays around it.
Questions people ask
How busy is LAX airport today?
Los Angeles publishes no live wait time, so there is no number for today. By TSA's counts 7 am is usually one of the busiest hours at LAX, about 6,700 people an hour across its checkpoints against 6,900 at the 8 am peak. On a normal day LAX screens about 96,000 people, 1st of the 432 airports TSA counts; its largest checkpoint is Terminal 3 - Passenger, with 20 percent of them.
When is TSA security at LAX quietest?
Over the 175 counted days, 22 March to 24 October 2026, LAX checkpoints screened the most people at 8 am. Between the rushes the counts are lowest at 6 pm, and they fall away after 10 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 LAX?
Over the 175 counted days, 22 March to 24 October 2026, LAX screened passengers from 3 am to 11 pm. These are the hours TSA counted people, not LAX's published checkpoint hours. Check the airport's own page before an early flight.
What is the busiest day of the week at LAX?
Sunday is LAX's busiest day of the week, about 104,000 people screened on an average one, 22 percent more than Tuesday, 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 LAX?
Every month at LAX came within 13 percent of the busiest, July, at about 105,000 people a day. 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 LAX get on a holiday weekend?
Memorial Day 2026, Thursday 21 to Tuesday 26 May: the busiest day was Friday 22 May, 108,756 people, 5 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 24 May was the lightest for its day of the week, 10 percent below the Sundays around it. Labor Day 2026, Thursday 3 to Tuesday 8 September: the busiest day was Friday 4 September, 111,678 people, 14 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 6 September was the lightest for its day of the week, 9 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.
Does LAX publish a live TSA wait time?
No. Los Angeles publishes no live wait time, so this page carries no number for right now and never predicts one. The national page ranks the 23 airports whose live number waittimes.io reads.
Does PreCheck have a shorter line at LAX?
LAX publishes no lane-by-lane wait time, so there is no PreCheck number to compare. TSA's counts are per checkpoint and do not separate PreCheck from standard lanes; the map above shows when each checkpoint is loaded, whichever lane you join.
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, CLE, 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
- Los Angeles publishes none.
- 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.
- Checkpoints and airlines
- Read once on Los Angeles's own site and linked beside each fact, with the day it was read. Never from another site.
- 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.