Which Months Have the Longest Customs Lines

Summary

Across 230,746,200 passengers counted in CBP’s wait bands, 4.5% waited more than an hour at passport control. December was the worst calendar month at 5.91% and June the best at 3.45%. December, April and October held 29.8% of the long waits on 24.9% of passengers. MCO Terminal C has the widest swing between months.

This is the passport control queue for arriving international passengers, not the TSA line. The reports on how long customs takes and when to land count hours: the median hour and the worst tenth of hours at each hall. Here every passenger counts once. CBP publishes how many people fell in each wait band in each terminal-hour, so the share of a month’s passengers who waited more than an hour is a share of people, and a busy afternoon weighs more than a quiet morning. Across August 2024 to October 2026, 4.5% of 230,746,200 counted passengers waited more than an hour and 20.4% more than half an hour.

December had the largest share of passengers waiting more than an hour, 5.91% (2 years pooled), and June the smallest, 3.45%, so the worst month is 1.7 times the best. December, April and October together held 24.9% of passengers and 29.8% of the passengers who waited more than an hour. The average wait per passenger was 21.2 min in December and 18.0 min in June.

Every arrival hall in the CBP records and every year in the data for the month together, so a month that appears in more years has more hours. Shares are of passengers counted in CBP’s wait bands. Average wait per passenger is each terminal-hour’s reported average weighted by the passengers in its wait bands.

Halls with at least 120 observed terminal-hours and 5,000 counted passengers in at least 10 calendar months, compared over the months that qualify. 9 of 62 halls do not qualify. Ordered by the points between the worst and best month.

A month with the highest share tied between months is placed in the earlier month of the year.

December, the worst month for all halls together, is the worst month at 15 of 53 halls with a comparison. December is the worst month at 15. The widest swing is at MCO Terminal C, where 24.02% of passengers waited more than an hour in July and 9.23% in March. A traveler with a choice of month at an airport with a swing like that has something to choose; at a hall with a small one, the hour of arrival matters more, and the report on when to land covers it.

CBP records the hour in which passengers were processed, not the hour the aircraft landed, and the bands count people at passport control only. They say nothing about baggage or the walk to the hall. The months pool the years in the data, which run August 2024 to October 2026, so a month that falls in more of those years has more hours and one unusual year weighs less in it. Passenger volume changes from month to month, as do staffing and the number of open booths, and the records do not separate them, so a long month here is a month with long queues and not a measured effect of the calendar. Halls that opened or closed during the period are compared over the months they have.