PDXPortland
How long is the TSA security line at PDX?
Portland (PDX) publishes no live wait time, so this page carries no number for right now. TSA's counts over 133 days, 22 March to 5 September 2026, put PDX's busiest hour at 5 am, with the counts falling away after 4 pm.
How busy PDX security usually is
People screened per hour at each checkpoint, averaged over 133 days of TSA counts, 22 March to 5 September 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 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BC Checkpoint | ||||||||||||||||||||
| DE Checkpoint | ||||||||||||||||||||
| PDXFIS |
Tap a cell for its count.
Quiet for this checkpointIts busiest hourclosed or no count
On the counted days PDX screened passengers from 3 am to 10 pm. Across PDX the busiest hour is 5 am and the counts fall away after 4 pm. Most checkpoints peak before noon; PDXFIS runs the other way at 6 pm. TSA counts people, not minutes, so this shows when a checkpoint is loaded, not how long you will stand in it.
Questions people ask
How busy is PDX airport today?
Portland publishes no live wait time, so there is no number for today. By TSA's counts 7 am is usually a quiet hour at PDX, about 940 people an hour across its checkpoints against 2,400 at the 5 am peak. On a normal day PDX screens about 25,000 people, 31st of the 431 airports TSA counts; its largest checkpoint is DE Checkpoint.
When is TSA security at PDX quietest?
Over the 133 counted days, 22 March to 5 September 2026, PDX checkpoints screened the most people at 5 am. Between the rushes the counts are lowest at 11 am, 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 PDX?
Over the 133 counted days, 22 March to 5 September 2026, PDX screened passengers from 3 am to 10 pm. BC Checkpoint and DE Checkpoint open first and DE Checkpoint runs latest. These are the hours TSA counted people, not PDX's published checkpoint hours. Check the airport's own page before an early flight.
Does PDX publish a live TSA wait time?
No. Portland publishes no wait time waittimes.io can read, so this page carries no number for right now and never predicts one. The national page ranks the 21 airports that publish a live number.
Does PreCheck have a shorter line at PDX?
PDX 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 publish no live number under it. The busiest airports by people screened lists every code TSA counts.
ATL, BOS, BWI, CLE, CLT, DAL, DCA, DFW, DTW, EWR, IAH, JFK, LGA, MCO, MIA, MSP, PHL, PHX, PIT, SEA, SLC
Where the numbers come from
- Wait times
- Portland publishes no wait time waittimes.io can read yet.
- Usual busyness
- TSA's own hourly passenger counts per checkpoint, published weekly in its FOIA reading room. This page uses 133 days of counts, 22 March to 5 September 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.