Hello A.net,

Besides the obvious ones like ATL, ORD, DFW, LAX, which airports operate 24h a day? Question is as simple as it sounds. All contributions appreciated, thank you.

DL's last flight out of LAS is at 130a, and their first flight is at about 5am. So, their ticket counter is only closed about 45 minutes before they reopen for the day.

MEM and SDF? I mean they might not be handling pax overnight, the airports are typically in full swing 24 hrs.

Aren't most (all?) airports open 24 hrs a day?

KTPAFlyer wrote:

Hello A.net,

Besides the obvious ones like ATL, ORD, DFW, LAX, which airports operate 24h a day? Question is as simple as it sounds.

Well, not as simple as that - what do you mean by 'open'? Do you mean the terminals are open 24/7, or just the airport itself (in which case, with limited exceptions, all the airports in the US are open 24/7)?

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FlyPIJets wrote:

Aren't most (all?) airports open 24 hrs a day?

Technically, yes. A runway is a runway. I know some General aviation airports shut off the lights though.

What makes an airport open 24/7 in the simplest terms is if you can get the same service at 3am as you can at 3pm. Ground handling, servicing, etc etc

The OP prolly meant which have the tower manned all the time. That would be over 200 and would take some time to break out.....and some change from time to time.

MIA and JFK might be among the few if not only airports handling passengers flights between 2400 and 0500.
The excuse for other airports (when it comes to international arrivals): F.I.S. not open.

PHX operates pretty much 24/7 in terms of arrivals and departures. Last pax arrival is 1:30AM or so and the first one out is 5AM. Several cargo airlines operate in and out between those times as well.

PHX has some really late flights (AA runs some 2am redeyes to CLT/PHL sometimes)

EDIT: beat by seconds

HNL

ORD does have a dead time. There is a 1:55 AM Aeromexico flight to GDL which is the last departure of the evening. However, the last departure from T1, T2, or T3 is a 2250 UA flight to SFO (and a handful of UAX flights that depart a few minutes earlier). The T1/2/3 security checkpoints close at like 2200 and reopen at 0315 for the first departures at 0500.

MKE has a 345a arrival on F9 from LAS and a 540a departure to DEN

BOS Never closes and locks its doors . Few Dunkin Donuts shops in the Airport open 24-7
OSH uh wait thats one week a year LOL for EAA Airventure. I believe .

drdisque wrote:

ORD does have a dead time. There is a 1:55 AM Aeromexico flight to GDL which is the last departure of the evening. However, the last departure from T1, T2, or T3 is a 2250 UA flight to SFO (and a handful of UAX flights that depart a few minutes earlier). The T1/2/3 security checkpoints close at like 2200 and reopen at 0315 for the first departures at 0500.

What about cargo traffic?

badgervor wrote:

MKE has a 345a arrival on F9 from LAS and a 540a departure to DEN

Last week when I was flying out, I had a flight that left at 6am. There was a Frontier flight just coming in at 5am. Im guessing some type of delay, maybe a late night west coast flight

UWPAviation wrote:

drdisque wrote:

ORD does have a dead time. There is a 1:55 AM Aeromexico flight to GDL which is the last departure of the evening. However, the last departure from T1, T2, or T3 is a 2250 UA flight to SFO (and a handful of UAX flights that depart a few minutes earlier). The T1/2/3 security checkpoints close at like 2200 and reopen at 0315 for the first departures at 0500.

What about cargo traffic?

I was talking about the passenger terminals, I assume the OP was too.

jaybird wrote:

HNL

Gotta love it when the F22s wake up the whole leeward coast during their night ops!

77H

UWPAviation wrote:

badgervor wrote:

MKE has a 345a arrival on F9 from LAS and a 540a departure to DEN

Last week when I was flying out, I had a flight that left at 6am. There was a Frontier flight just coming in at 5am. Im guessing some type of delay, maybe a late night west coast flight

MCI has a flight from LAS (NK 816) that gets in at about 0530 each morning. Always trips me up when I take a, say, 0700 flight and there are people getting on to the parking shuttle as I am getting off in those wee morning hours.

MSP has "last" flight arrival around 0100-0200, depending on time of year, and first out around 0500. I believe the terminal is open 24/7 though.

KTPAFlyer wrote:

Hello A.net,

Besides the obvious ones like ATL, ORD, DFW, LAX, which airports operate 24h a day? Question is as simple as it sounds. All contributions appreciated, thank you.

So let's go with the OP's question and focus on "which airports operate 24h a day" where the question is intended to be "as simple as it sounds".

This would include cargo, FIS closed where flight lands (presumably ahead of schedule) but pax have to wait for FIS to reopen, the whole nine yards.

Outside of mandatory night curfews, TFRs, ground stops and irrops, that doesn't leave much room for closures then. Once again "as simple as it sounds" since many curfews are voluntary, Stage III is allowed 24 hours a day, etc.

In fact, until the last security person, cleaner, fueler, mechanic or parking lot attendant goes home, or the last RON passenger gets kicked out of the building, one could reasonably say that the airport is open since airport personnel is present and a plane landing there would still receive some kind of service, however basic that handling might be.

In that case virtually every county airport and above is open 24 hours a day.

Perhaps a good definition for pax operations would be if there are time blocks when security check points are closed. In case of multiple security check points at an airport whichever one is closed the least. For example the main MKE security checkpoint is not manned by TSA after about 11pm most nights, so no outgoing pax, and then reopens IIRC about 3:30 or 4:00 am. Having said that there are airport security guards keeping anybody from heading down to the pier and making sure that pax that arrive into MKE on the late midnight and 1am arrivals, once they leave the pie, r do not double back and head back to their gate.

FlyPIJets wrote:

Aren't most (all?) airports open 24 hrs a day?

I agree. The ? should be which airports do not operate 24 hours.

2travel2know2 wrote:

MIA and JFK might be among the few if not only airports handling passengers flights between 2400 and 0500.
The excuse for other airports (when it comes to international arrivals): F.I.S. not open.

LAX, SFO, SEA have post midnight departures TPAC as well as eastbound redeyes.

coronado wrote:

Perhaps a good definition for pax operations would be if there are time blocks when security check points are closed. In case of multiple security check points at an airport whichever one is closed the least. For example the main MKE security checkpoint is not manned by TSA after about 11pm most nights, so no outgoing pax, and then reopens IIRC about 3:30 or 4:00 am. Having said that there are airport security guards keeping anybody from heading down to the pier and making sure that pax that arrive into MKE on the late midnight and 1am arrivals, once they leave the pie, r do not double back and head back to their gate.

I arrived on a 12AM flight PHX-MKE last year and the airport was indeed dead at that time. It was weird walking through a dark airport.

FAT's terminal and control tower are both open 24 hours. I believe the security checkpoint closes around 1:00 and re-opens around 3:30, but I'm not 100% sure about that anymore as the departure time for the last flight to GDL changes a lot. That flight is usually around 1-2AM and then first flight around 5AM, so there's probably only about two hours where there aren't actually passengers in the terminal, and might be some that are there all night (although I think they make pax get out of the secured area between those hours).

If there is one airport that truly operates 24 hours it must be LAX. You still have full activity between 10pm-1am with transcon/transpacific flights when most other airports have just a few token departures. It only ever slows down between 2-4AM before the first flights from Hawaii and Australia start to arrive and the first departure bank starts at 5-6AM.

coronado wrote:

Perhaps a good definition for pax operations would be if there are time blocks when security check points are closed. In case of multiple security check points at an airport whichever one is closed the least. For example the main MKE security checkpoint is not manned by TSA after about 11pm most nights, so no outgoing pax, and then reopens IIRC about 3:30 or 4:00 am. Having said that there are airport security guards keeping anybody from heading down to the pier and making sure that pax that arrive into MKE on the late midnight and 1am arrivals, once they leave the pie, r do not double back and head back to their gate.

That's probably a good definition. It doesn't really matter if your flight is at 5am, but if you want to get to the gate at 2 or 3am, the question is...can you get to it?

I would think most major airports have at least one security checkpoint that's open 24 hours, but maybe not. Just a small sampling:

DEN's south side TSA checkpoint is open 24 hours:
http://www.flydenver.com/security

LAX's website lists specific operating hours for each terminal, implying that there is no entry to any of the terminals before 4am. However, it doesn't really list TSA checkpoint operating hours. Perhaps these hours only signify the earliest and latest when concessions are open?
http://www.lawa.org/welcome_lax.aspx?id=5450

SFO appears to not have 24 hour TSA security. The latest checkpoint closes at 2am, and the earliest doesn't open until 4am.
http://www.flysfo.com/flight-info/security

Couldn't find anything on ATL's website, though this link says the main checkpoint is open 24 hours. I would imagine as such considering ATL has a central design like DEN.
https://www.preflightairportparking.com ... rport-Info

Surprisingly, DFW's last checkpoint closes at 11:30pm! Earliest one doesn't open up until 4am. I find that hard to believe, but it's published on here. I suppose compared to ATL or DEN, it's harder to keep one of many smaller checkpoints open at DFW than it is to keep one central one at ATL or DEN open.
https://www.dfwairport.com/security/index.php

As noted previously, PHX is open 24hrs/day.

Though I've been there for some of the after-midnight redeyes and it's a ghost town. But T4 at least keeps one security checkpoint open all night, and all three terminals maintain at least one place to eat 24hrs.

Food and beverages are available for sale 24 hours a day, seven days a week pre-security in all three terminals. Restaurants located past security generally open one hour before departures from nearby gates and remain open up to 30 minutes after the last scheduled flight arrives.

AA has a redeye to CLT that departs at 01:15 in summer, and 02:15 when the rest of the country observes DST. It has redeyes to PHL, MIA, and ORD as well, most leaving after midnight.

NK has a redeye to DFW that departs at 00:55. I'm not sure if it shifts to 01:55 in winter.

UA has a redeye to ORD that leaves ~23:45 in summer and 00:45 in winter.

There are a handful of regular cargo ops between 02:00 and 05:00, but scheduled pax flights don't depart until 05:00 after that last AA flight to CLT.

Define "operate 24h."

Most airports are operational 24-hours but their secured areas become inaccessible at some point. I've been kicked out of ORD & HNL in recent years -- security will advise that if you wish to spend the night at the airport, you may not do so in the secured area. I've also had a flight that was delayed until the wee outs of the morning out of DFW, and security made it clear that if you were not ticketed on the flight, you must leave the terminal.

intotheair wrote:

coronado wrote:

Perhaps a good definition for pax operations would be if there are time blocks when security check points are closed. In case of multiple security check points at an airport whichever one is closed the least. For example the main MKE security checkpoint is not manned by TSA after about 11pm most nights, so no outgoing pax, and then reopens IIRC about 3:30 or 4:00 am. Having said that there are airport security guards keeping anybody from heading down to the pier and making sure that pax that arrive into MKE on the late midnight and 1am arrivals, once they leave the pie, r do not double back and head back to their gate.

That's probably a good definition. It doesn't really matter if your flight is at 5am, but if you want to get to the gate at 2 or 3am, the question is...can you get to it?

I would think most major airports have at least one security checkpoint that's open 24 hours, but maybe not. Just a small sampling:

DEN's south side TSA checkpoint is open 24 hours:
http://www.flydenver.com/security

LAX's website lists specific operating hours for each terminal, implying that there is no entry to any of the terminals before 4am. However, it doesn't really list TSA checkpoint operating hours. Perhaps these hours only signify the earliest and latest when concessions are open?
http://www.lawa.org/welcome_lax.aspx?id=5450

SFO appears to not have 24 hour TSA security. The latest checkpoint closes at 2am, and the earliest doesn't open until 4am.
http://www.flysfo.com/flight-info/security

Couldn't find anything on ATL's website, though this link says the main checkpoint is open 24 hours. I would imagine as such considering ATL has a central design like DEN.
https://www.preflightairportparking.com ... rport-Info

Surprisingly, DFW's last checkpoint closes at 11:30pm! Earliest one doesn't open up until 4am. I find that hard to believe, but it's published on here. I suppose compared to ATL or DEN, it's harder to keep one of many smaller checkpoints open at DFW than it is to keep one central one at ATL or DEN open.
https://www.dfwairport.com/security/index.php

Pretty sure the checkpoints for most airports are only open when they have scheduled flights to save money.

I think there are plenty of airports that are NOT 24/7. I think quite a few mid sized airports are dead overnight or kick you into the front entrance area not the gates.

BTV Burlington Vermont has to be one of the smaller airports that is open 24 hours. The terminals are actually open 24 hrs and i have seen many French Candians sleeping in the airport either for a super early flight or cause they missed the last bus etc. Really not uncommon a site there with lots of transfers across the border. I don't think they allow scheduled landings past a certain time i think its 1am etc but the terminal lobby area is definitely open 24 hours one of the smaller airports i think you can legitimately sleep in the airport overnight.

Just Look Here !!
https://www.tsa.gov/precheck/schedule

It'll show not just pre-check, but all checkpoints which are open.

I think the most active airports as far as operating flights through the night hours are MEM, SDF, CVG, ANC, HNL, LAX.

777PHX wrote:

[
I arrived on a 12AM flight PHX-MKE last year and the airport was indeed dead at that time. It was weird walking through a dark airport.

Just pointing out, you will never see a 12am departure or arrival time in any schedule. Before 2008 the HP/US side of T4 at PHX was dead after 2030hrs, as the hub was moved to LAS for the night.

910A wrote:

777PHX wrote:

[
I arrived on a 12AM flight PHX-MKE last year and the airport was indeed dead at that time. It was weird walking through a dark airport.

Just pointing out, you will never see a 12am departure or arrival time in any schedule. Before 2008 the HP/US side of T4 at PHX was dead after 2030hrs, as the hub was moved to LAS for the night.

Can you explain further what you mean here?

I see at least three departures tonight ex-PHX on AA that depart after 12AM.

It's not as 'simple as it sounds.' The OP grossly failed to provide adequate definition of open - as others have pointed out.

Fortunately, there are classes available in formal Q&A to improve critical thinking.

http://www.vervago.com/skill-sharpeners ... estioning/

SteveXC500 wrote:

MSP has "last" flight arrival around 0100-0200, depending on time of year, and first out around 0500. I believe the terminal is open 24/7 though.

The light rail also runs 24/7 between the two terminals.

The question is not simple at all. Passenger or cargo? ATC operating hours? Or if the airport has a curfew? Pretty much any airport that has lights and does not have a curfew is open 24hr, even if the tower is closed you can still fly in calling position as if you were landing at an uncontrolled field.

Presuming you meant airline traffic and terminals, given the "obvious" late night airport is MEM, then pretty much all somewhat large commercial airports run 24/7 but some TSA check points will be closed for a period of time.

MIA for example has departures and arrivals until 1:30am on a typical day for passengers and then gets up and running again around 3:30am. During that brief period there are usually no passenger flights, but still cargo flights. But it depends on delays as well. The terminal doors are always open, and a few spots to eat pre-security are always open too.

af773atmsp wrote:

SteveXC500 wrote:

MSP has "last" flight arrival around 0100-0200, depending on time of year, and first out around 0500. I believe the terminal is open 24/7 though.

The light rail also runs 24/7 between the two terminals.

It also almost runs 24 hours per day to both Bloomington and MPLS, only stopping for about 2 hours between 2:30ish and 4:30ish.

MCO has both arrivals and departures in the middle of the night. there is a JetBlue flight arriving at 1:30AM from EWR, as well as some departures at that time.

BOS as others have said is technically open 24/7, I've been on flights landing at 2am or later due to delays, for departures, if you look at tomorrow for example, you have CX at 1.45am, which we could say is the last departure of the previous day, and then the first flight out is AA to Charlotte at 5am. So only 3 hours or so without any departures.

77H wrote:

jaybird wrote:

HNL

Gotta love it when the F22s wake up the whole leeward coast during their night ops!

77H

You can never be too prepared for protecting from Al Qaeda bombing runs

B747forever wrote:

If there is one airport that truly operates 24 hours it must be LAX. You still have full activity between 10pm-1am with transcon/transpacific flights when most other airports have just a few token departures. It only ever slows down between 2-4AM before the first flights from Hawaii and Australia start to arrive and the first departure bank starts at 5-6AM.

That is nothing unique to LAX. Many major U.S. airports are like that.

MIA has departures around the clock - for example LAN Peru has a 2am to Lima and Avianca a 3am to Bogota. Arrivals start before 4am with the shorter redyes from Ecuador and the like. At MIA the longest gap between arrivals is two hours between 1230 (AA arrival from DFW) and 230 (AV arrival from BOG). Longest gap between departures is from 3.15am (AV to BOG) and 545am (AA to DFW).

It'll be interesting to note what U.S. airports have vendors operating 24 hours within security. I know DFW, MIA and BOS all do.

2travel2know2 wrote:

MIA and JFK might be among the few if not only airports handling passengers flights between 2400 and 0500.
The excuse for other airports (when it comes to international arrivals): F.I.S. not open.

Yes and no.

Even at those mega-gateways (as well as LAX) Customs may technically be available; but it's usually only open at a single terminal area, and still may not have sufficient personnel to process a large flight, barring an emergency.

Around Thanksgiving, I took AA's GIG-MIA, where we got in more than an hour early.... rather than bring us to wherever was still open at that time (approx 3:45am) we just sat on the tarmac for more than an hour, waiting for AA's terminal FIS to open.