Connecting at Austin: one terminal, and the old South Terminal is gone

Last checked 30 September 2026

A connection is when your trip has two flights and you change planes in between. At Austin, every airline uses one terminal and all four security checkpoints lead to all gates, so a connection on one ticket is a walk.

Two words used below. Security (also called TSA screening) is the checkpoint where your bags go through a scanner and you walk through a body scanner. Once you're through it, you're in the secure area, the part of the airport with the gates. If you leave the secure area you have to go through security again to get back in.

At a glance

• One terminal, all airlines. Every airline flies from the Barbara Jordan Terminal.
• Four security checkpoints, one secure area. The airport says the four checkpoints "lead to all gates". Once you're through any one of them you can walk to any gate.
• Connecting on one ticket: you stay inside security and walk from one gate to the next.
• Old advice about a "South Terminal" is out of date. Allegiant and Frontier used a separate South Terminal, with its own security and a shuttle bus. It closed on 31 March 2026. Their flights now use the main terminal.
• Landing from another country: the customs exit is on the lower level. A typical passport-control wait over the last year was about 12 minutes.
• Early morning: the first security checkpoints usually open at 3:00 a.m.

Which airline is where?

All nineteen airlines on the airport's list use the one terminal:

Aeromexico, Air Canada, Alaska, Allegiant, American, British Airways, Cayman Airways, Copa, Delta, Frontier, JetBlue, KLM, Lufthansa, Porter, Southwest, Sun Country, United, Viva Aerobus and WestJet.

The airport doesn't publish which gates each airline uses, so check your boarding pass or your airline's app for your gate numbers. A flight run for one of these airlines by a smaller partner airline can also be somewhere else in the terminal.

Changing gates

You walk. Nothing else is needed: no train, no bus, and no second security check for a connection on one ticket. The airport doesn't publish walking times. If your two gates are at opposite ends of the terminal, leave extra time.

Landing from another country

Passport control is the desk where an officer from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) checks your passport. The customs exit is on the lower level, "to the far left (east) past bag carousel 7". The airport offers self-service passport kiosks (Automated Passport Control) to speed this up.

If you flew in from a preclearance airport: CBP checks passengers at 16 airports abroad before they board (the list includes Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Dublin and Abu Dhabi). If you flew from one of them, you skip passport control and the second security check when you land, so those steps don't apply to you. Ask your airline whether your bags go through to your next flight.

How long passport control takes. Over the year to 23 September 2026, about 485,000 passengers came through. Half of them waited 12 minutes or less. One in ten waited 31 minutes or longer. Fewer than 1 in 100 waited over an hour. About 1 in 6 arriving passengers were members of Global Entry, a paid programme that gives faster passport control. CBP says its times don't include collecting your bags or finding your way around the airport.

The steps, in order:

1. Everyone arriving from another country, including US citizens: go through passport control. You can use the self-service kiosks.
2. Everyone: collect your checked bags and take them through Customs, then leave through the customs exit on the lower level.
3. Passengers connecting to another flight: check your bags in again with your airline for your next flight. We couldn't find where the drop-off is, so follow the signs for connecting flights or ask staff.
4. Passengers connecting to another flight: go through security again at any of the four checkpoints, which lead to all gates. The first usually open at 3:00 a.m.
5. Passengers connecting to another flight: walk to your next gate.

Going through security again after an international arrival is the normal routine at US airports. A trial scheme lets some passengers skip it. TSA's announcement of it names two flights, both from London, to Atlanta and Dallas. Austin is not one of them. On a few routes, eligible connecting passengers don't collect and recheck their bags, but still go through security again. Check with your airline.

If your flights are on separate tickets

If you booked two flights separately, you collect your bags, check in again with the second airline, and go through security again. Add the time to collect your bags, check in again and go through security.

Tips

• If both flights are on one ticket and your bags are checked through to your final stop, you normally stay inside security and just walk. Ask when you check in.
• The security checkpoints open at about 3:00 a.m. The airport doesn't publish when they close.
• If you read an older guide that mentions the South Terminal, ignore it. It closed on 31 March 2026.

GateCast grades your connection from A to F on how likely you are to make it. The grade is an estimate. GateCast knows which airlines you're flying but has no gate information, so check your boarding pass and add time for any second security check.

Checked 30 September 2026. Terminals, gates and airlines change, so confirm with the airport and your airline before you travel.