Landing to the curb takes 16 to 36 minutes, depending on the airport

From touchdown to the curb, a carry-on passenger in row 25 of a 737 takes about 16 minutes at Burbank and about 36 at O’Hare. On a slow trip, 1 in 10, O’Hare runs to 55.

Those are modelled figures across 55 US airports, for a typical day. No airline, airport or tracker publishes this number, and the person circling the arrivals curb is the one who wants it.

Most of the slow trips start on the taxiway

Among the 12 busiest airports, the typical trip runs from 24 minutes at Boston to 36 at O’Hare. O’Hare, Atlanta and Denver sit at the top, for different reasons.

O’Hare’s time goes on the ground. Atlanta’s and Denver’s go on the walk and the train. Each stage above is that stage’s own median, so the columns don’t add up to the last one.

For a passenger whose row is fixed, the taxi is the largest source of uncertainty at all 12 airports. It accounts for 53% of the spread in trip time at LAX and 91% at O’Hare. So once a plane is at the gate, the remaining time is much easier to call. If you’re picking someone up, the moment to trust is “at the gate”, and “landed” comes with a wide range.

The gate can matter as much as the airport

Atlanta’s airport-wide figure hides two very different trips. From Concourse F the typical trip is 25 minutes. From Concourse E it’s 40, because the train is the only way to baggage claim.

LAX has the same split: 25 minutes from Terminal 1 and 42 from the Midfield Satellite. Seattle runs 27 from the B gates and 35 from the S gates. JFK runs 26 from Terminal 1 and 33 from Terminal 4.

Row matters less than either. At O’Hare, moving from row 25 to row 15 takes about 3 minutes off.

A checked bag costs less where the walk is long

With a checked bag, this model adds about 8 minutes at O’Hare and about 9 at DFW, but only about 3 at Atlanta and Denver. On a long walk the bag has time to reach the belt before you do. The bag times are judgement, because nobody in the US publishes a measurement, so treat this as a shape and not a figure.

How this was made

For each airport I ran 40,000 simulated trips. Each trip adds up these stages, and the last one applies only with a checked bag.

The walks come from mapped walkways, in bands that run from a typical walker to a slow one, with trains counted where they’re required. The results above round to whole minutes, because anything finer would claim more than this can show.

What this can’t tell you

Nobody has timed these trips. Nothing here has been compared with a real walk from gate to curb. Published airport walking times run about 1.4 times the typical walker in this model, and the slow end of each band was raised to allow for that.

Each gate counts the same, because public data doesn’t say which gates are busiest. An airport’s figure will shift if your airline uses its far gates. A known gate beats the airport figure every time, so use the airport pages where you can.

It stops at the curb. Rideshare lots, shuttles and rental cars add their own minutes, and at some airports the rideshare pickup is a long way from the curb.

It covers domestic arrivals. A flight from abroad adds passport control, and the landing-to-gate records used here don’t include those flights.

Some maps are thinner than others. Orlando’s walks and the Las Vegas D gates are closer to straight-line distances than routed walks.

It doesn’t cover wheelchair assistance, buses to remote stands or a stop on the way out.

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