Heathrow security wait times by terminal and time of day

What this page gives you is the part that holds true before you travel: which terminal and which hour to expect a queue, and how to plan around it. For the exact wait at this minute, the Heathrow app carries a live read per terminal, fed from sensors at each security entrance, so you can check the current queue on the day.

On the broader picture, Heathrow reported that more than 97% of passengers waited under five minutes at security through 2025, a result of the £1 billion next-generation scanner rollout that completed in January 2026. The exception is the morning peak, where the standard queue can stretch beyond 20 minutes at Terminal 3 and Terminal 5. Treat the airport's published guidance of 2 hours before a short-haul flight and 3 hours before a long-haul as the rule, not as padding.

The rest of this page covers the parts that do not change with today's specific queue: the rules in force since January 2026, the typical pattern by terminal, the peak windows, when Fast Track pays back, and the arrival times Heathrow itself recommends.

Heathrow's £1 billion CT (computed tomography) scanner rollout completed across all four terminals on 24 January 2026, making Heathrow the first major global airport to fully scrap the 100ml liquid limit. The new rules:

• Liquids, pastes and gels up to 2 litres per container in cabin baggage. Up from 100ml.
• No clear plastic bag required for liquids. They can sit loose inside the cabin bag.
• Laptops, tablets and other large electronics stay in your bag for screening. The CT scanner sees through the case.
• The two-bag policy at the security entrance: every passenger gets one carry-on plus one personal item. A handbag plus a laptop bag counts as one piece, but two laptop bags or two backpacks does not.
• Vacuum flasks must be emptied before screening. The double-walled insulation blocks the CT beam, so a full flask earns a manual check.

Baby formula, prepared baby milk, sterilised water, expressed breast milk and baby food remain exempt from any liquid limit on top of the 2-litre rule; the containers may be inspected but the quantity is not capped. The full ruleset and the small list of exceptions sit on the 2 litre liquid allowance. The official guidance is on heathrow.com security and baggage; the underlying UK rule (and the still-100ml position at airports yet to upgrade) sits on gov.uk hand luggage restrictions. The size-and-allowance side (cabin bag dimensions, hold limits, how airlines differ) sits on Heathrow luggage rules.

One caveat for the return leg. The 2-litre rule applies on the Heathrow security pass only. Plenty of airports outside the UK still enforce 100ml, so a litre of duty-free shower gel bought at Heathrow may not clear security at the airport you fly back from. Check the destination airport rules before stocking up.

The four operating terminals run the same security rules now and the same CT scanners. What differs is scale, peak shape, and how each terminal manages its queue.

T5 Terminal 5

Europe's largest single-terminal operation. Queue patterns track the British Airways wave structure: the morning long-haul push between 06:00 and 08:00 is the worst window and the standard queue can stretch beyond 25min at the peak of it. Off-peak afternoons run under five minutes. T5 also has the BA First Wing for BA First-class passengers, BA Gold and Gold Guest List, and oneworld Emerald, plus one guest each: a dedicated check-in lobby and security channel that runs separately from the main hall. The T5B and T5C satellites do not have their own security; everyone screens at T5A and rides the transit train out.

T3 Terminal 3

The second-busiest morning peak after T5, driven by the long-haul outbound waves of American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Japan Airlines, Royal Jordanian and the rest of the oneworld set at T3, plus Virgin Atlantic, Delta, Emirates, and Alaska Airlines from May 2026. The Virgin Atlantic Upper Class Wing is a separate security channel for Upper Class passengers, reached via a dedicated entrance off the T3 check-in concourse. The standard queue tracks the same shape as T5: peak between 06:00 and 08:00, calm by mid-morning, busier again from 16:00.

T2 Terminal 2 (the Queen's Terminal)

The Star Alliance hub. Morning busy under the Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, ANA, United, Air Canada and Aer Lingus departures, plus ITA Airways from March 2026, but the peak is shorter than T3 or T5 and the standard queue rarely stretches beyond 20 minutes. T2 is the most modern security hall at Heathrow (the terminal opened in 2014) and the wayfinding is the cleanest of the four. The T2A-to-T2B walk to the satellite gates is around 10 to 15 minutes once you are airside; account for it when judging the security buffer.

T4 Terminal 4

The calmest at off-peak hours and Heathrow's smallest terminal by departure volume. The SkyTeam set (Air France, KLM, Korean Air, China Eastern), plus Qatar Airways, Etihad, Malaysia Airlines, Royal Air Maroc, Pakistan International Airlines from March 2026 and Vueling from the same date, give T4 a more spread-out departure pattern than the alliance-concentrated terminals. Standard waits run under 10 minutes most of the day and Fast Track saves correspondingly less here. If you have a choice of terminal on a cross-airport connection, T4 is the easiest at peak.

Two windows account for most of the queueing across the airport.

• 05:00 to 08:00: the morning long-haul departure wave, plus the first European short-haul departures. The busiest window of the day, particularly at T3 and T5.
• 16:00 to 19:00: the late-afternoon European short-haul peak and the second long-haul wave.

Quietest:

• 10:00 to 12:00: the morning long-haul departures have cleared and the lunchtime short-haul push has not yet started.
• 13:00 to 15:00: the post-lunch lull before the late-afternoon peak.

The pattern shifts on a Friday evening (busier than midweek through 18:00 to 21:00), a Sunday afternoon (busier than midweek between 14:00 and 18:00), and across UK school holidays (the first and last weekends of each holiday window are the worst). For a same-day decision, the live read in the Heathrow app is what you want; the published patterns above are what to use when planning the morning more than a day out.

Heathrow Fast Track is a separate, shorter security lane at every terminal, from £12.99pp per person booked in advance through the airport's own site. It operates 06:00 to 21:00 daily at all four terminals; outside those hours every passenger uses the standard lane. The screening itself is identical, including the same 2-litre liquid rule; Fast Track is the queue, not the check.

Many passengers already have it included without buying it separately: British Airways Club Europe, Club World, First and Business UK; Virgin Atlantic Upper Class and Premium; oneworld Sapphire and Emerald on the matching oneworld terminal; Star Alliance Gold on Star Alliance departures from T2; SkyTeam Elite Plus on SkyTeam departures from T4; BA Executive Club Silver and Gold (plus one guest); and several Plaza Premium, Aspire and No1 Lounges packages bundle it. Check the boarding pass and the loyalty tier before paying.

The honest case for paying for it: a weekday morning peak at T3 or T5, with a tight connection and no included entitlement on the ticket. At quiet times the standard queue is usually under five minutes and the Fast Track saving disappears. The full case, including the airline-by-airline entitlement and the time saved by terminal, sits on Fast Track at Heathrow. The official page is heathrow.com Fast Track.

A handful of substantive steps move the needle. The rest is folklore.

• Arrive in the quieter half-hour either side of peak. A 05:00 arrival at T5 hits the morning peak; a 04:30 arrival clears security before the rush. Same logic on the late-afternoon peak: 15:30 arrivals tend to clear faster than 16:30.
• Know the two-bag rule before you walk in. A handbag plus a laptop bag counts as one piece for the carry-on allowance, but a second laptop bag or backpack triggers a slower lane.
• Empty vacuum flasks before reaching screening. The double-walled insulation blocks the CT beam; a full flask earns a manual check.
• Use the right entrance for your terminal. T5 has separate Fast Track and standard entrances on the same floor as check-in. T2, T3 and T4 each have a single security entry split by lane at the top of the escalator; the Fast Track sign is clearly above the right-hand lane (T3 and T4) or the left-hand lane (T2).
• Have the boarding pass open before the lane. The boarding-pass scan at the entry gate runs faster off a phone screen than off a paper print or a wallet app that takes a tap to wake.

Wearing slip-on shoes or smiling at security staff makes no measurable difference. The CT scanner cares about the bag content, not how the passenger presents.

Heathrow's published guidance is 2 hours before a short-haul flight and 3 hours before a long-haul flight. The 2-hour and 3-hour windows cover check-in and bag drop (which close 45 minutes before short-haul and 60 minutes before long-haul on most airlines), security, the walk to the gate, and a sensible buffer. The official page is heathrow.com checking in.

Add 30 minutes in:

• Peak windows (05:00 to 08:00 and 16:00 to 19:00 on weekdays).
• UK school holidays, particularly the first and last weekends.
• Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons.
• Major event weekends in London (FA Cup final, Wimbledon finals, the London marathon, bank holiday weekends).

The guidance is conservative at off-peak hours: a long-haul departure on a Tuesday afternoon does not need three hours in practice. At peak it is realistic and worth following. Heathrow's own 2025 figure of 97% of passengers waiting under five minutes at security explains why the buffer rarely gets consumed; it is the morning peak where the slack matters most.

Self-connecting on separate tickets is a separate calculation. You clear UK immigration on the first arrival, collect any checked bag, exit landside, re-check in at the next airline's desk, and re-clear security like any other departing passenger. Allow the full 2 or 3 hours from when you reach the departure terminal, on top of the time to clear arrivals and move between terminals. The check-in opening times by airline page covers the bag-drop windows; the inter-terminal transfer guide covers the cross-terminal walks. For the wider departure flow, live departures at Heathrow is the parent page.