SEATTLE—If you’ve traveled through an airport during the winter holiday season, you’ve probably experienced the habitual holiday horrors: weather delays, canceled flights, grueling lines, miserable crowds.
Tack on the stresses of traveling internationally—and having to consider factors like customs and citizenship status—and holiday travel can be downright scary.
If you’re flying into or out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, one recent study suggests it might just be a full-on nightmare.
A ranking by travel guide website Upgraded Points named Sea-Tac Airport the worst in the country for international travel this winter holiday season (the week before Christmas through New Year’s Day).
International travel is expected to surpass 2019 levels for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the study.
The study analyzed the country’s 41 major international airports with data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Researchers considered wait times for travelers at customs, the average maximum wait time for U.S. citizens and non-citizens and the percentage of travelers who go through customs in under 15 minutes.
Sea-Tac ranked worst for international travel based on last year’s average wait time during the winter holiday season, which was 31.6 minutes, according to the study. The national average wait time was just below 23 minutes.
But at Sea-Tac, the typical indicators of long wait times might not tell the full story.
Customs manages Sea-Tac’s International Arrivals Facility, which opened in 2022, said airport spokesperson Perry Cooper.
The facility was designed as the first “Bags First” facility in a large-hub airport in the country, Cooper said, referring to a process in which international travelers retrieve their bags before seeing a customs agent.
The process, which customs first implemented in a few smaller airports, is meant to streamline the international arrivals process by having travelers complete less paperwork, speak to only one customs agent and, of course, collect their bags first and only once.
The wait times used in the study were measured from when travelers leave the aircraft to when they get to customs, and since Sea-Tac’s travelers go to customs last, “that adds to the process of waiting and picking up your bag,” Cooper said.
The study, customs spokesperson Jason Givens said, “erroneously reported excessive wait times that were not based on an actual date/time stamp from [customs’] automated systems.”
Orlando, with the fourth longest wait time, is also a “Bags First” airport, Cooper added.
Unlike most U.S. airports, Sea-Tac also added international routes during the pandemic (from carriers such as Qatar, Turkish, Finnair and Tahiti Nui), and it now has more international services than before the pandemic, Cooper said.
Sea-Tac has already exceeded its pre-pandemic levels for international travelers this year (and set a record this summer for the busiest day of international travel in its history), a mark that most airports across the country have not reached, Cooper said.
Airport officials anticipate passenger volume at Sea-Tac to increase this winter holiday season by about 11 percent from 2022, which would reach near pre-pandemic levels. Passenger volume is projected to peak Saturday with a total of 158,000 departing, arriving and connecting passengers. The Tuesday (157,000) and Wednesday (155,000) following Christmas are also expected to be particularly busy.
Airports in Miami and Austin ranked second and third worst for international travel this season, with average wait times of 30.6 minutes and 29.2 minutes last year.
Orange County’s John Wayne Airport reported the shortest average winter holiday wait time in 2022 at 4.6 minutes, although researchers said it’s worth noting the international airport is among the nation’s smallest in terms of passenger traffic.
Sea-Tac, on the other hand, is ranked 14th by total international travel volume, but the study found there wasn’t a strong correlation between immigration wait times and airport size.
Instead, factors like arrival time and citizenship status significantly impact how long it takes travelers to clear international checkpoints, the study found. Arrivals between 5 a.m. and 3 p.m. faced longer wait times compared to other times of day, and if you’re not a U.S. citizen, expect to wait nearly 70 percent longer.
