Which US airports had the fewest TSA complaints? Here are the rankings from travelers
Getting through airport security can be a breeze — or a nightmare — depending on where you’re flying from, travelers say.
If you’re looking for the least stressful experience, Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina is the hub for you, according to a study by Upgraded Points.
It had the fewest Transportation Security Administration complaints compared to other large U.S. airports, “experiencing less than 2 complaints per 100K passengers over the past 8 years,” according to the analysis.
The study, published on Aug. 12, ranked airports the least prone to passenger complaints based on TSA Contact Center Complaint data from 2015 to 2023, the Texas-based travel company said.
The data is based on grievances per 100,000 passengers at the nation’s 44 largest hubs for air travel. Complaints were then normalized by passenger volume to ensure “accurate comparisons across airports of varying sizes,” the company said.
“Security checks are an unavoidable part of air travel, but the experience can vary greatly depending on the airport,” Keri Stooksbury, editor-in-chief at Upgraded Points, said in a news release. “And since navigating security can be such a high-stress experience, we identified where passengers are most and least satisfied with TSA.”
- Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT) — 1.97 complaints per 100,000 passengers
- Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) — 2.63 complaints per 100,000 passengers
- Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) — 2.74 complaints per 100,000 passengers
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) — 2.75 complaints per 100,000 passengers
- Chicago Midway International Airport (MDW) and Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) — 2.8 complaints per 100,000 passengers
The national average among the nation’s 44 largest airports was 3.92 complaints per 100,000 passengers, according to Upgraded Points.
So which one had the most passengers angry enough to file a grievance?
New Jersey’s Newark Liberty International Airport took the top spot with 6.83 complaints per 100,000 passengers, according to the study.
What are the top TSA complaints?
Passengers’ most common complaints were issues with expedited passenger screening programs (think TSA PreCheck), mishandling of passenger property and poor customer service, according to the Upgraded Points analysis.
More than half (59.7%) of the TSA complaints at San Francisco International Airport were about expedited passenger screening, data shows.
The least common grievances overall were lost and found and civil rights violations, the report said.
Upgraded Points also found that passenger complaints spiked around holiday season, during the last few months of the year, and fell in January and February.
This was true across all airports in the report, “suggesting a calmer travel period at the start of the year.”
“All this is to say that higher passenger volumes can make an already stressful situation even more tense, almost certainly leading to a worse experience and more complaints being filed,” Upgraded Points said.
This story was originally published August 14, 2024 at 2:53 PM with the headline "Which US airports had the fewest TSA complaints? Here are the rankings from travelers."