If you’ve flown in the last 15 years, you probably know about T.S.A. PreCheck, the program intended to speed vetted travelers through dedicated airport security lanes: You don’t have to remove your shoes or belt and can keep liquids and electronics in carry-ons.
Over time, the Transportation Security Administration program, which costs under $80 for five years, has become less exclusive as its membership numbers have soared to more than 22 million. Meanwhile, the standard security line has begun to resemble the PreCheck line, with the recently announced end of the shoe removal rule; new lanes for families and veterans at certain airports; and the rollout of more advanced imaging technology.
So how much time does PreCheck actually save travelers at some of the busiest U.S. airports? We analyzed publicly available data from some major airports, including the three in the New York area.
At these airports — Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark — PreCheck saves travelers five to 10 minutes on average, according to our analysis. But this will depend on the terminal you’re flying out of and the time of day you’re departing. Sometimes you may save over 30 minutes, sometimes none at all.
At some other major airports, the average time saved appears to be lower than in New York.
It’s too early to say how the shoe rule change will affect PreCheck’s value. But at the very least, PreCheck is a relatively inexpensive insurance policy. It can make a big difference if you find yourself flying when lines are longer than usual. We have data on specific New York-area terminals below.
The evolution of PreCheck
PreCheck started in 2011 at a handful of airports and became more widely available in 2013. By 2015, it had reached one million enrolled travelers; it hit 10 million in 2020 and 22 million this year. The total number of eligible fliers is even larger because some of the 20 million people belonging to other trusted traveler programs, such as Global Entry, also get PreCheck benefits.
Over the past year, PreCheck members accounted for 34 percent of passengers screened at airport checkpoints, a T.S.A. spokesman said. The program is available at more than 200 U.S. airports.
At the New York airports, PreCheck’s value plummeted during the pandemic in 2020, when fewer people traveled and all security lines were short, so the gap in wait times was negligible. But today, the time savings are roughly the same as just before the pandemic, even though PreCheck now has more than double the number of enrollees.
Adam Stahl, acting deputy administrator at the T.S.A., said PreCheck still offered a “significant value proposition,” with shorter waits and less invasive screening. (Applicants to the program are fingerprinted and submit to a background check.)
Even as membership has grown, the T.S.A. has largely been able to keep up with demand by opening additional PreCheck lines and repositioning transportation security officers.
Using data from airline bookings, the agency can determine how many officers are needed at each security checkpoint and lane, said Christopher Bidwell, a senior vice president for the Airports Council International-North America, a trade group representing commercial airports.
The T.S.A. has also hired more officers as passenger numbers have risen, with more than 54,000 transportation security officers across 440 U.S. airports. That’s a roughly 9 percent increase since 2021, according to the agency. Last year, it screened a record 904 million passengers, a 5 percent increase from the previous year.
Caleb Harmon-Marshall, a former T.S.A. officer who runs a travel newsletter called Gate Access, said that in his experience the agency “will always prioritize” PreCheck and often moves officers during a shift.
“They’ll pull officers from the standard line; they’ll risk having the standard line back up,” he said.
Terminal by terminal
J.F.K., LaGuardia and Newark post real-time wait estimates for standard and PreCheck lanes on their websites. The wait times are based on the number of people in line and the speed of processing at the checkpoints, according to a spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airports.
Of the terminals at those airports, Kennedy’s Terminal 5 has the biggest average time savings for its PreCheck line: almost 16 minutes, according to our analysis. That is partly because Terminal 5’s standard security lines have some of the longest wait times in New York, so there is a lot of room for improvement.
By contrast, at Newark’s Terminal A, PreCheck saves just three minutes on average, but both security lines have waits under five minutes most times of day. The average wait in the standard security line at Newark Terminal A is shorter than the average for the PreCheck line at J.F.K. Terminal 5.
Time of day matters, too. Data from FlightRadar24 and FlightAware shows that the busiest window for departures from New York airports is 6 a.m. to 8 a.m. But in most New York terminals, PreCheck has the most value for travelers from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Here are all the New York terminals for which we have hourly data:
At some terminals, both types of lines are fast enough that a traveler in the standard line may get through security at the same time as, or more quickly than, a PreCheck flier. At LaGuardia’s Terminal C, which serves Delta Air Lines, PreCheck fliers beat their counterparts only about half the time (and all lines tend to be short). But at Kennedy’s Terminal 5, which primarily serves JetBlue, PreCheck fliers get through security faster 99 percent of the time.
Most major airports outside of New York either do not list estimated wait times or give vaguer estimates like “less than five minutes,” which makes precise analysis difficult.
At several airports where we were able to assess some of the data, like Ronald Reagan National outside Washington, PreCheck appeared to save less than five minutes on average. The same was true for the major airports serving Pittsburgh, Minneapolis and Jacksonville, Fla.
At Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, the time savings for PreCheck are also under five minutes. Both PreCheck and the standard security lines are meaningfully longer in the morning than in the late afternoon or evening.
The future
The T.S.A.’s changes to its standard security lines could help speed them up, which in theory could lower the future value of PreCheck. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said last month that “every rule is being evaluated” and that “the next big announcement” could loosen restrictions on liquid sizes in carry-ons.
Ryan Propis, a security expert at the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group that promotes travel to and within the country, said he believed the end of the shoe removal policy would improve standard wait times. However, he said he didn’t think it would “move the needle” so much that standard lines would be consistently comparable with PreCheck.
What distinguishes the program is “the certainty around what my PreCheck experience is going to be and what my time in PreCheck is going to be,” Mr. Propis said. “I think that will keep it valuable for a long time.”
Mr. Stahl, the T.S.A. official, said facial recognition technology called Touchless ID, which eliminates the need to present your ID to an officer, is offered only to PreCheck members.
“We’re looking at other possible benefits,” he added. “We are continually invested in the PreCheck brand.”
Ben Blatt is a reporter for The Upshot specializing in data-driven journalism.
Christine Chung is a Times reporter covering airlines and consumer travel.
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