SEASeattle Tacoma
How long is the TSA security line at SeaTac (SEA) right now?
At 9:39 am Pacific most SeaTac checkpoints are under 10 minutes. The longest standard line is Checkpoint 3, 12 min. Checkpoint 1, Checkpoint 2 and Checkpoint 5 are moving at 3 min.
Wait time by checkpoint
| Checkpoint | Standard | PreCheck |
|---|---|---|
| Checkpoint 1 | 3min | no lane |
| Checkpoint 2 | 3min | no lane |
| Checkpoint 3 | 12min | no lane |
| Checkpoint 4 | 10min | no lane |
| Checkpoint 5 | 3min | no lane |
| Checkpoint 6 | 8min | no lane |
Read from news.delta.com at 19 minutes ago, next read in 1
How busy SeaTac 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 | 9 am, now | 10a | 12p | 2p | 4p | 6p | 8p | 10p | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Checkpoint 1 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Checkpoint 2 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Checkpoint 3 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Checkpoint 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Checkpoint 5 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Checkpoint 6 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Checkpoint IAF |
Tap a cell for its count.
Quiet for this checkpointIts busiest hourclosed or no count
On the counted days the first passengers through SeaTac were screened at midnight and the last at 11 pm. Across SeaTac the busiest hour is 6 am and the counts fall away after 6 pm. Checkpoint 3, Checkpoint 6 and Checkpoint 4 screen 68 percent of the people TSA counts at SeaTac, Checkpoint 3 alone 26 percent. The busiest hour at Checkpoint 3 is 10 am, 4 hours after SeaTac's. Most checkpoints peak before noon; Checkpoint IAF runs the other way at 1 pm. TSA counts people, not minutes, so this shows when a checkpoint is loaded, not how long you will stand in it.
Which day SeaTac is busiest
Sunday and Thursday are SeaTac's busiest days of the week, within 0.4 percent of each other and at least 21 percent more than Tuesday, the quietest.
| Rank | Day | People a day | Days counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sunday | 64,509 | 23 |
| 2 | Thursday | 64,260 | 23 |
| 3 | Friday | 62,762 | 23 |
| 4 | Monday | 60,969 | 23 |
| 5 | Wednesday | 55,043 | 25 |
| 6 | Saturday | 54,150 | 23 |
| 7 | Tuesday | 53,207 | 23 |
People screened at SeaTac 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 SeaTac is busiest
July was SeaTac's busiest month in TSA's counts, about 70,000 people a day, 41 percent more than March, the quietest. October, the latest month counted, ran 21 percent below July.
| Rank | Month | People a day | Days counted |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | July | 70,492 | 13 |
| 2 | August | 68,059 | 31 |
| 3 | September | 60,035 | 30 |
| 4 | June | 59,755 | 13 |
| 5 | May | 56,506 | 31 |
| 6 | October | 55,400 | 17 |
| 7 | April | 53,710 | 30 |
| 8 | March | 50,171 | 10 |
People screened at SeaTac 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 SeaTac 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, 71,322 people, 16 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 24 May was the lightest for its day of the week, 17 percent below the Sundays around it.
Labor Day 2026
Thursday 3 to Tuesday 8 September: the busiest day was Monday 7 September, 71,890 people, 9 percent above the Mondays around it. Sunday 6 September was the lightest for its day of the week, 16 percent below the Sundays around it.
Questions people ask
How busy is SeaTac airport today?
At 9:39 am Pacific most SeaTac checkpoints are under 10 minutes. The longest standard line is Checkpoint 3, 12 min. By TSA's counts 9 am is usually one of the busiest hours at SeaTac, about 4,500 people an hour across its checkpoints against 4,500 at the 6 am peak. On a normal day SeaTac screens about 59,000 people, 13th of the 432 airports TSA counts; its largest checkpoint is Checkpoint 3, with 26 percent of them.
Does PreCheck have a shorter line at SeaTac?
The SeaTac feed lists no open PreCheck lane at the moment; the sign above shows every lane it publishes.
Which SeaTac checkpoint is fastest right now?
At 9:39 am Pacific the shortest standard line is at Checkpoint 1, Checkpoint 2 and Checkpoint 5, 3 min. The sign above lists every checkpoint and lane the airport publishes, longest and shortest alike.
How current is this number?
Delta Air Lines publishes the SeaTac wait times at news.delta.com and waittimes.io reads them every 10 minutes. The time on the sign is the last read, in Pacific 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 SeaTac quietest?
Over the 175 counted days, 22 March to 24 October 2026, SeaTac checkpoints screened the most people at 6 am. The counts fall away after 6 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 SeaTac?
Over the 175 counted days, 22 March to 24 October 2026, the first passengers through SeaTac were screened at midnight and the last at 11 pm. Checkpoint 4 opens first and runs latest. These are the hours TSA counted people, not SeaTac's published checkpoint hours. Check the airport's own page before an early flight.
What is the busiest day of the week at SeaTac?
Sunday and Thursday are SeaTac's busiest days of the week, within 0.4 percent of each other and at least 21 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 SeaTac?
July was SeaTac's busiest month in TSA's counts, about 70,000 people a day, 41 percent more than March, the quietest. October, the latest month counted, ran 21 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 SeaTac get on a holiday weekend?
Memorial Day 2026, Thursday 21 to Tuesday 26 May: the busiest day was Friday 22 May, 71,322 people, 16 percent above the Fridays around it. Sunday 24 May was the lightest for its day of the week, 17 percent below the Sundays around it. Labor Day 2026, Thursday 3 to Tuesday 8 September: the busiest day was Monday 7 September, 71,890 people, 9 percent above the Mondays around it. Sunday 6 September was the lightest for its day of the week, 16 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, CLE, CLT, DAL, DCA, DFW, DTW, EWR, IAH, JAX, JFK, LGA, MCO, MIA, MSP, PHL, PHX, PIT, SFO, SLC
Where the numbers come from
- Wait times
- Published by Delta Air Lines at news.delta.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.