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Comment by bernardom | Hacker News Reader

That's a really great point. After 9/11, it takes so damn long to get to your flight that cutting out an hour of travel time isn't as impactful as before.

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I haven't noticed any big problems. The American airport I fly into often (SeaTac) is pretty efficient, security rarely takes more than 10 minutes. The other smaller airports I've experienced haven't been any worse.

Airports and airlines advise [1-4] arriving 2 to 3 hours before the departure of an international/long haul flight.

If airlines and airports have the capability to get you through security quickly, they don't do a good job of publicizing it.

[1] http://www.portseattle.org/sea-tac/passenger-services/pages/... [2] http://www.flysfo.com/web/page/orphan/faq/#2 [3] http://www.stanstedairport.com/stansted-airport-guide/checki... [4] http://www.jfkairportguide.com/arrivals-departures.html

I think rather than state an average time to get through the airport and on the plane and have everything break down the second it gets congested they are going to recommend a timeframe that should get everyone on the plane even in the worst case.

Airports/ airlines want to get planes out on time, wasting moe of your time makes that easier for them.

They may also be pulling out a worst case bound - in case you get pulled over for a secondary inspection and that sort of thing.

Someone should do a study on the lost productivity of airline travel.

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