Layover Time Planner
Will you make that connecting flight? Enter your arrival and departure times, the layover type, and the obstacles between gates — get an honest verdict and a minute-by-minute breakdown.
Enter both flight times to see your layover analysis.
Sum of every mandatory step from arrival to gate.
Negative — you will miss the flight.
Step-by-step time budget
Required 1h 10m of 0m- Deplane & exit aircraft15m
- Walk to departure gate15m
- Be at gate before boarding40m
What can you actually do?
Activities that fit inside your 0m of free time.
Reference: minimum connection time
For Domestic → Domestic connections, most major airports list a minimum of 30–60 min.
Most US/EU airports list a 30–45 min minimum for domestic transfers.
About Layover Time Planner
The Layover Time Planner gives you an honest answer to the most stressful question in air travel: "Will I make my connecting flight?" Instead of staring at the gap between arrival and departure and guessing, you tell the planner what kind of layover it is — domestic to domestic, international to domestic, terminal change, baggage recheck — and it subtracts every mandatory step from your total layover. What's left is your real free time.
The planner uses realistic time estimates for deplaning, immigration, customs, baggage claim and recheck, security re-screening, terminal changes, walking to the gate, and being at the gate before boarding. It adjusts those estimates based on whether you've been to this airport before and how long the walk between gates is. The result is a verdict (missed, risky, tight, comfortable, or plenty), a step-by-step time budget, and a list of activities that actually fit. Pair it with the Jet Lag Recovery Planner for long-haul trips and the Itinerary Timeline Builder to slot the connection into your overall trip.
How to Use Layover Time Planner
- Enter the connecting airport (optional — just for your own reference) and your inbound flight's scheduled arrival time in local time.
- Enter your outbound flight's scheduled departure time. If it's the next day, change the departure date.
- Pick the layover type. International-to-domestic is the most demanding because you must clear immigration and customs at this airport.
- Tick "Terminal change" if your departure gate is in a different terminal — most large hubs (LHR, JFK, CDG, AMS) require an inter-terminal train.
- Tick "Need to claim & recheck baggage" if you booked separate tickets, fly a non-partner airline, or arrive on an international leg into a US airport.
- Choose walking distance to your gate (short, medium, or long) and whether you've been to this airport before — familiar travellers move faster.
- Set how many minutes before departure you want to be at the gate. Default is 40 minutes; many airlines now close the gate 20–30 minutes before push-back.
- Read the verdict at the top and the step-by-step breakdown below it. Anything in amber or red means you should reconsider an optional stop or rebook.
- Use the activity suggestions to plan how to spend any free time — and use Export to send the plan to your travel companion.
Tip: if the verdict says "tight" or "risky," ask yourself whether you really need to recheck baggage or change terminals. Same-itinerary flights on the same airline (or partner airline) usually transfer baggage automatically and may stay in the same terminal — un-ticking those boxes can flip the verdict.
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a "safe" layover time?
Roughly: 60 minutes domestic-to-domestic, 90 minutes domestic-to-international, and 2 hours international-to-domestic with baggage recheck. Anything below the airline's published minimum connection time (MCT) and the airline won't legally guarantee the connection — if you misconnect, you may have to pay for the rebooking yourself.
Do I always need to recheck my baggage on an international layover?
Not always. If both flights are on the same booking (one ticket) with partner airlines, your bag is usually checked through to the final destination. The big exception is the United States: every passenger arriving internationally must collect their bag, clear customs, and recheck it — even if you're connecting to another flight on the same airline.
Why does the planner add 40 minutes for "be at gate"?
Most international airlines close the boarding gate 20–30 minutes before scheduled departure, and a few low-cost carriers close it 40 minutes before. Building a 40-minute buffer means you'll still make it even if your inbound flight is 10–20 minutes late. You can lower this if you're flying a carrier with a known later cut-off, but don't go below 20 minutes.
What if my inbound flight is delayed?
A delayed inbound shrinks your layover minute-for-minute. The planner shows your "free time" buffer — that's roughly how much delay you can absorb before things get risky. If your free time is under 20 minutes, expect to run; under 0, you'll likely misconnect and need a rebooking.
Are immigration and customs really that fast?
The planner uses realistic averages: 35–50 minutes for immigration, 15 minutes for customs. Reality varies wildly by airport, time of day, and your passport. JFK at 6pm on a Friday is a different planet from Tokyo Haneda at 10am. If you know your destination is notoriously slow (Heathrow Terminal 2 immigration, Miami border control), pad your buffer manually by skipping optional activities.
Can I trust this planner to make a booking decision?
Use it as a sanity check, not as the only input. The planner's "missed" verdict is a strong red flag — don't book a layover the tool says you can't make. But "comfortable" doesn't mean nothing can go wrong: weather, mechanicals, gate changes, and slow immigration can all eat your buffer. For high-stakes onward travel (a wedding, cruise, non-refundable ticket), build in 30+ extra minutes beyond what the planner shows.
Does the planner handle overnight layovers?
Yes. Set the departure date to the next day. The total layover will show in hours, the verdict will be "plenty of time," and the activity list will include long options like a hotel sleep or lounge nap. For overnight layovers, also check whether your destination requires a transit visa — that's not something this tool can compute.
Is my data private?
Yes. Your flight times, airport, and preferences are stored only in your browser's local storage on this device. Nothing is uploaded to any server. Clearing your browser data will reset the planner.
Why is "International → International" sometimes faster than "International → Domestic"?
Most airports keep international transit passengers airside, so you skip immigration, customs, and baggage recheck — only security re-screening (and sometimes not even that). Arriving internationally and then flying domestic forces you through immigration and customs because you're now formally entering the country.