How Early to Get to the Airport: When to Leave Home

How early should you get to the airport? 2 hours before a domestic flight and 3 hours before an international one. American, Delta and Frontier ask for 2 hours before a domestic flight, American and Delta for 3 before an international one, and the airports of Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas and Minneapolis-St. Paul tell their own passengers the same. The hard deadlines are later: Delta, American, JetBlue and Southwest close bag drop 45 minutes before a domestic flight, United and Frontier 60. Type your flight above to see when to leave home.

How to use it

Type your flight’s scheduled departure, pick the airline, and say whether it is domestic or international, whether you are checking a bag and whether you have TSA PreCheck. Add how long it takes to get to the airport, and parking and the shuttle if you drive, and the tool gives the time to leave home and a timeline: at the airport, bag drop or check-in closing, at the gate, departure. It also shows the latest time that still works on paper, so you can see how much of your margin is the airline’s rules and how much is caution. The answer is in the page’s address, so Copy link sends it to whoever is driving.

Where the times come from

Every airline time is the airline’s own, read from its website or its contract of carriage on September 25, 2026. American’s and United’s sites and Allegiant’s refuse automated readers, so their words were read from the Internet Archive’s latest copy, dated on the page. Southwest’s contract of carriage is the 58th revision, dated September 24, 2026. Where an airline’s page gives no arrival advice, the tool uses the advice the others publish and names them. The security line is your number: with TSA PreCheck and nothing typed it uses TSA’s own figure, that 99% of PreCheck passengers wait less than 10 minutes. For today’s line at your airport, use TSA’s app. The airports’ own advice below was read from each airport’s security page on October 15, 2026.

Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are not listed: their pages could not be read by us or the Archive, and a 2017 article is too old to quote. Spirit Airlines stopped flying on May 2, 2026.

Each airline’s deadlines

Minutes before the scheduled departure; a dash means the page we read does not say. JetBlue’s times are for being on board. Several airlines need more at some airports, mostly abroad, and list them on their own pages.

What the airports themselves say

Eight of the busiest US airports print their own advice on their security page, quoted here word for word. Chicago O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Charlotte, Houston, Phoenix, Seattle, Miami, Philadelphia, San Diego, Austin and Washington’s two airports printed none on the page we read: they leave it to the airline.

In their own words:

• Atlanta (Hartsfield-Jackson): “Airport officials recommend arriving at least two hours before scheduled departure for domestic travel and three hours before international travel.”
• Denver: “We recommend arriving at least two hours before your flight to allow time for security screening.”
• Las Vegas (Harry Reid): “Passengers are always advised to arrive two hours prior to domestic flights and three hours before international flights to allow for any unexpected delays.”
• Orlando: “Please arrive at the security checkpoint 2 hours before departure.”
• Minneapolis-St. Paul: “Please arrive at MSP two hours before domestic flights and three hours prior to international travel.”
• Boston Logan: “We recommend arriving two hours prior to domestic departures and three hours prior to international departures to ensure adequate time for check-in, security screening and travel to your gate.”
• Baltimore/Washington (BWI): “The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) currently recommends travelers arrive 2 hours before scheduled domestic flights and 3 hours for international flights.”
• San Francisco: “The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) encourages travelers to arrive at the airport two hours prior to flight departure for domestic travel and three hours for international travel.”

Hours before the scheduled departure, read on October 15, 2026. Orlando’s is the time to be at the security checkpoint, so the drive and the bag drop come before it. BWI and San Francisco pass on TSA’s advice in their own words. No airport moves the airline’s deadlines: bag drop and the gate still close when your airline says.

Worked examples

• A 6:10 pm American flight to Europe with a checked bag, 45 minutes’ drive: American asks for 3 hours, so be at the airport by 3:10 pm and leave home by 2:25 pm. Bag drop closes at 5:10 pm, 60 minutes before.
• A 7:00 am Southwest flight, carry-on only, TSA PreCheck, 25 minutes’ drive: Southwest’s contract gives no arrival advice, so the tool uses the 2 hours American, Delta and Frontier ask: at the airport by 5:00 am, leaving home at 4:35 am. On paper the latest that works is 6:30 am, when check-in closes.
• A 9:00 am United flight with a bag: United’s contract of carriage closes check-in and bag drop 60 minutes before a domestic flight, not the 45 most airlines use. With a 20-minute security line and a 30-minute drive, the latest that works is leaving at 7:30 am; the 2-hour plan says 6:30 am.

Common mistakes

• Planning on the deadline. The bag-drop cut-off is when the counter stops taking bags, not when you should join its line.
• Assuming every airline has the same cut-off. United’s is 60 minutes for a domestic flight; Delta’s is 45 with a bag and 30 without.
• Forgetting the gate time. Delta wants you at the gate 15 minutes before a domestic flight and 45 before an international one; the door closes before the plane leaves.
• Leaving out the car park. A shuttle from an economy lot can take as long as the drive: add it.

Before you fly

Pack with the ultimate carry-on packing list, read the international travel tips for first-timers, and for an early flight, how to handle a red-eye and the long flight survival guide.