Miami South Terminal security wait times: what to expect
From September 14 to October 12 we logged 149,918 security checkpoint readings at Miami South Terminal. The standard lane averaged 4 minutes, and TSA PreCheck averaged 4 minutes. 96% of standard-lane readings were 10 minutes or less, and none were over half an hour.
That is in line with Miami as a whole.
When the line is longest
The standard line at South Terminal is longest around 9 PM, when it has averaged 6 minutes, and shortest around 2 AM, at 2 minutes. By day of the week, Thursday has been the heaviest (5 minutes on average) and Sunday the lightest (3 minutes).
| Time of day | Standard | PreCheck |
|---|---|---|
| Early morning (4–8 AM) | 3 min | 3 min |
| Morning (8 AM–noon) | 4 min | 4 min |
| Midday (noon–4 PM) | 5 min | 5 min |
| Evening (4–8 PM) | 5 min | 5 min |
| Night (8 PM–4 AM) | 4 min | 3 min |
Average wait across the last 28 days. A dash means the lane is usually closed then.
PreCheck at South Terminal
PreCheck and standard waits have been almost the same here, within a minute of each other on average, so PreCheck matters less at South Terminal than at busier checkpoints.
How early to arrive
To plan your arrival, use the worst hour rather than the average: at South Terminal that is 6 minutes in the standard lane around 9 PM. Allow that on top of your airline's check-in and bag-drop deadlines, and more on Thursdays and holiday weekends. The live board above shows what the line is doing right now, and the chart projects the next 12 hours.
Airlines at Miami South Terminal
6 airlines use this checkpoint: Delta Air Lines, Frontier Airlines, JetBlue, Southwest Airlines, Spirit Airlines and United Airlines. Terminal assignments change from time to time, so confirm yours on your boarding pass or the airline's app.
Other terminals at Miami
| Terminal | Standard avg | PreCheck avg | Busiest hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| North Terminal | 3 min | 1 min | 8 AM |
| Central Terminal | 5 min | 3 min | 7 PM |
Where these numbers come from
Each airport publishes its own checkpoint wait estimates. This site reads them every minute and keeps every reading. Closed lanes are left out of the averages, and times are local to the airport. The averages above cover the last 28 days and are recalculated every hour. The posted wait is the airport's estimate, not a timed measurement, so treat it as a guide.
The full archive is free to download as an open dataset, and the about page explains who runs the site and why.