Thousands of travelers are passing through Hartsfield-Jackson International on Tuesday as they return from Memorial Day weekend trips, after traffic volumes at the world’s busiest airport set a record last week.
On Tuesday, the day after a three-day weekend for many people, security checkpoint wait times at the Atlanta airport reached as long as 40 minutes at one point in the morning.
Airport officials recommend travelers get to the airport at least 2 to 2.5 hours before domestic flights, and 3 hours before international flights.
The number of people screened at Hartsfield-Jackson checkpoints hit 111,000 last Thursday as travelers set off for trips. That was the most in the airport’s history, surpassing the previous record of 104,174 on the Monday after the Super Bowl in Atlanta in 2019, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
TSA originally expected Friday to be the busiest day of the holiday weekend at the Atlanta airport, but ended up screening a total of 109.960 passengers that day, just shy of Thursday’s total.
Traffic volumes at airport security checkpoints nationally did hit a record number Friday, when TSA said it screened 2.95 million people. That broke the previous record set on Nov. 26 last year, the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Many of the travelers who set off on trips for the weekend last Thursday and Friday are now returning home.
At Hartsfield-Jackson at around 7 a.m. on Tuesday, wait times at the domestic terminal North checkpoint were estimated at 41 minutes, while the main checkpoint had a listed wait time of 27 minutes. The wait time at the South checkpoint for PreCheck members was listed at 15 minutes.
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