Perceived time
Passengers estimate their queue time. DfT says estimates can be higher than measured time, while still giving an indication of relative differences between airports.
DfT / CAA survey · 2025 · published 26 August 2026
Short queues.Very different experiences.
Luton and East Midlands were almost level on reported security queue time. On satisfaction with the security-screening experience, they were 22 percentage points apart.
- 80%
- Luton · no more than 5 minutes
- 79%
- East Midlands · no more than 5 minutes
- 22 pp
- satisfaction gap
- 15,000+
- passengers at 8 airports
The finding
The same wait on paper. A different experience.
If queue time alone explained passenger satisfaction, Luton and East Midlands would sit close together on the second measure too. In the survey, that is where they separate.
Luton ↔ East Midlands
1 pointdifference in waits of no more than 5 minutes
22 pointsdifference in passengers satisfied or very satisfied
Main chart
One checkpoint, two answers
Each row compares two answers from the same survey. The yellow diamond shows the share of passengers who reported waiting no more than five minutes for security screening. The teal circle shows the share who were satisfied or very satisfied with the screening experience.
Source: DfT, AVI0502 and AVI0504. Chart values are rounded to whole percentages. View the official AVI0502 and AVI0504 tables
Source table
The same values, in a table
| Airport | ≤5 minutes | Satisfied / very satisfied | >20 minutes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Luton | 80% | 74% | 0% |
| East Midlands | 79% | 96% | 1% |
| Gatwick | 77% | 84% | 1% |
| London City | 69% | 85% | 2% |
| Heathrow | 69% | 90% | 1% |
| Manchester | 48% | 91% | 5% |
| Stansted | 43% | 82% | 6% |
| Birmingham | 41% | 84% | 10% |
The response bases differ slightly: 15,169 for satisfaction and 14,841 for queue time. DfT excludes no-answer and do-not-know responses from the queue analysis.
What the comparison shows
Queues matter. They do not tell the whole story.
The Civil Aviation Authority's Departing Passenger Survey, reported by the Department for Transport, asked more than 15,000 passengers at eight UK airports about security screening in 2025. East Midlands appeared in the series for the first time.
At Luton, 80% of passengers said they waited no more than five minutes for security screening. At East Midlands, 79%. That is a one-point difference. For the screening experience as a whole, 74% of Luton passengers said they were satisfied or very satisfied. At East Midlands, 96%. The gap was 22 points.
Birmingham provides a useful reverse check. Only 41% of passengers there reported waiting no more than five minutes, and 10% reported waiting more than 20 minutes. Yet 84% were satisfied or very satisfied, ten points above Luton. Across the five airports tracked consistently, the share reporting waits of no more than five minutes rose from 52% in 2023 to 57% in 2024 and 64% in 2025. Queues matter. Queue time on its own does not account for the large differences in satisfaction between airports.
There are limits. Queue time is a passenger estimate, not a stopwatch measurement. The satisfaction question covers the whole security-screening experience, including the queue, organisation, staff and procedures. Airport passenger mixes differ, and airports completed the rollout of Next Generation Security Checkpoint technology at different times during 2025. This chart describes an observed association in one survey. It does not show that shorter queues never help, or that East Midlands necessarily runs security better than Luton.
Limits of the figures
What to keep in mind
The whole experience
Satisfaction refers to security screening as a whole. The question does not isolate the time spent in the queue.
Descriptive comparison
Passenger mixes differ between airports, and NGSC technology came online at different times. The data does not establish a cause.
Method
How the figures were read
- Period
- Survey conducted in 2025; published by DfT on 26 August 2026.
- Queue time
- Share selecting the 1–5 minute category, shown here as no more than 5 minutes.
- Satisfaction
- Share answering satisfied or very satisfied to the question about the screening experience.
- Calculation
- Displayed values are rounded percentages. The finding uses the displayed values: 79 − 80 = −1; 96 − 74 = 22.
Sources
The underlying documents
The figures come from official Department for Transport statistics and data collected by the Civil Aviation Authority.
- 01Department for Transport, Air passenger experience of security screening: 2025
- 02DfT, AVI0502 and AVI0504 in the AVI data tables
- 03Civil Aviation Authority, Departing Passenger Survey
The source page was checked on 27 August 2026.