RDURaleigh Durham
When is TSA security busiest at RDU?
TSA's counts over 175 days, 22 March to 24 October 2026, put RDU's busiest hour at 5 am, with the counts falling away after 5 pm. Raleigh Durham (RDU) publishes no live wait time, so this page carries no number for right now.
How busy RDU 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 | 10a | noon, now | 2p | 4p | 6p | 8p | 10p | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Employee Screening Checkpoint (ESC) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Terminal 1 Checkpoint | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Terminal 2 Checkpoint |
Tap a cell for its count.
Quiet for this checkpointIts busiest hourclosed or no count
On the counted days RDU screened passengers from 3 am to 8 pm. Across RDU the busiest hour is 5 am and the counts fall away after 5 pm. Terminal 2 Checkpoint screens 76 percent of the people TSA counts at RDU, Terminal 1 Checkpoint 24 percent. Most checkpoints peak before noon; Employee Screening Checkpoint (ESC) runs the other way at noon. 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 RDU
What Raleigh Durham 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
Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 each have their own checkpoint. The airport's route between the terminals is a 5 to 10 minute walk through the parking garage atrium, or a free shuttle. From rdu.com, read 15 October 2026.
PreCheck and CLEAR lanes
CLEAR is in both terminals, at the standard and the PreCheck lanes. From rdu.com, read 15 October 2026.
Which terminal each airline uses
From rdu.com, read 15 October 2026.
- Terminal 1
- Alaska, Avelo, Breeze, Southwest, Sun Country
- Terminal 2
- Aer Lingus, Aeromexico, Air Canada, Air France, American, BermudAir, Copa, Delta, Frontier, Icelandair, JetBlue, Lufthansa, United, Volaris
Which day RDU is busiest
Sunday and Friday are RDU's busiest days of the week, within 0.7 percent of each other and at least 40 percent more than Tuesday, the quietest.
| Rank | Day | People a day | Days counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sunday | 27,307 | 23 |
| 2 | Friday | 27,126 | 23 |
| 3 | Thursday | 26,588 | 23 |
| 4 | Monday | 25,866 | 23 |
| 5 | Wednesday | 21,924 | 25 |
| 6 | Saturday | 20,169 | 23 |
| 7 | Tuesday | 19,412 | 23 |
People screened at RDU 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 RDU is busiest
Every month at RDU came within 13 percent of the busiest, July, at about 26,000 people a day. October, the latest month counted, ran 3 percent below July.
| Rank | Month | People a day | Days counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | July | 26,370 | 13 |
| 2 | October | 25,662 | 17 |
| 3 | June | 25,387 | 13 |
| 4 | May | 24,942 | 31 |
| 5 | March | 23,773 | 10 |
| 6 | August | 23,050 | 31 |
| 7 | April | 23,003 | 30 |
| 8 | September | 22,976 | 30 |
People screened at RDU 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 RDU 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, 28,578 people, 4 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 24 May was the lightest for its day of the week, 23 percent below the Sundays around it.
Labor Day 2026
Thursday 3 to Tuesday 8 September: the busiest day was Friday 4 September, 30,097 people, 14 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 6 September was the lightest for its day of the week, 27 percent below the Sundays around it.
Questions people ask
How busy is RDU airport today?
Raleigh Durham publishes no live wait time, so there is no number for today. By TSA's counts noon is usually a middling hour at RDU, about 1,600 people an hour across its checkpoints against 2,300 at the 5 am peak. On a normal day RDU screens about 24,000 people, 32nd of the 432 airports TSA counts; its largest checkpoint is Terminal 2 Checkpoint, with 76 percent of them.
When is TSA security at RDU quietest?
Over the 175 counted days, 22 March to 24 October 2026, RDU checkpoints screened the most people at 5 am. Between the rushes the counts are lowest at 10 am, and they fall away after 5 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 RDU?
Over the 175 counted days, 22 March to 24 October 2026, RDU screened passengers from 3 am to 8 pm. Terminal 1 Checkpoint runs latest. These are the hours TSA counted people, not RDU's published checkpoint hours. Check the airport's own page before an early flight.
What is the busiest day of the week at RDU?
Sunday and Friday are RDU's busiest days of the week, within 0.7 percent of each other and at least 40 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 RDU?
Every month at RDU came within 13 percent of the busiest, July, at about 26,000 people a day. October, the latest month counted, ran 3 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 RDU get on a holiday weekend?
Memorial Day 2026, Thursday 21 to Tuesday 26 May: the busiest day was Friday 22 May, 28,578 people, 4 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 24 May was the lightest for its day of the week, 23 percent below the Sundays around it. Labor Day 2026, Thursday 3 to Tuesday 8 September: the busiest day was Friday 4 September, 30,097 people, 14 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 6 September was the lightest for its day of the week, 27 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 RDU publish a live TSA wait time?
No. Raleigh Durham 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 RDU?
RDU 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
- Raleigh Durham 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 Raleigh Durham'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.