“Airport Theory”: the 15-minute viral trend from TikTok

A particular trend that has been dominating TikTok lately regarding air travel and especially airports.

The “airport theory” is a TikTok trend that calls for travellers to arrive at the airport just 15 minutes before boarding their flight. The idea is that if check-in has been done online and there are only carry-on bags, the traveler will be just in time to enter the cabin.

The airport theory is “about whether you really need to get to the airport within a certain amount of time to catch a flight,” says Betsy Grunch with 2.4 million followers on TikTok. “Is it really necessary to arrive two to three hours early, as recommended, to catch your flight?”

The trend is about people testing the airport theory and reducing unnecessary airport wait times to as little as their nerves can bear.

Grunch tested the theory when traffic and a baggage mishap meant she arrived at her local airport with about 26 minutes to spare before boarding time. That airport happened to be Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the busiest in the world.

As a content creator, she instinctively pulled out her phone and started recording. After finding a parking spot, she climbed the escalators to the security checkpoint. “I ran. I think running at the airport is distracting,” she said.

Luckily for her, her boarding gate was the one closest to the exit after security and she says she got there in about 18 minutes.

“The best part was that there were no lines,” she said. Her bag, however, stopped at security and she had to go out for a routine check. “I thought this was just a little something extra to make me reconsider my decision.”

“I have PreCheck, Clear and Digital ID. So through any airport, I can try to get through security as quickly as possible. At Hartsfield, Digital ID is usually the fastest,” he explains. “But that’s something specific with Delta that uses facial recognition to get you through, and most people aren’t signed up for that.”

However, Grunch says she would never try this trend on an international trip, with the extra security procedures required and because the cost if something goes wrong is high.

“Many of the theoretical videos on the internet about airports have proven that it’s possible to get to your gate in just 15 or 20 minutes, but what these videos haven’t proven is that you have to do it. The two or three hour guidance is a cushion for anything that happens that you don’t expect, whether it’s weather, whether it’s a train malfunction, whether it’s something like that,” a spokesperson for Denver International, the sixth busiest airport in the world in 2023, told CNN Travel.

“TSA wait times can vary from airport to airport, even from day to day within each airport, especially during peak travel times,” said a spokesperson for Dallas/Fort Worth, the third busiest airport in the world in 2023.