How early should you leave for Logan Airport?

The honest answer is that it depends on three things: whether you are flying domestic or international, what time of day you are traveling, and where in Greater Boston you are starting from. Here is how we think about it when we plan an airport pickup.

Start with time at the airport

For a domestic flight, plan to be at the terminal about two hours before departure. For an international flight, give yourself three hours. If you are checking bags, lean toward the longer end. If you are a frequent flyer with TSA PreCheck or Clear and only a carry-on, you have a little more flexibility, but Logan security lines can still surprise you during peak periods.

Then add travel time, honestly

Getting to Logan is rarely a straight shot. Most routes into the airport pass through the Sumner or Ted Williams tunnel, and those back up quickly at rush hour and on Sunday evenings. As a rule of thumb from the close-in suburbs:

• Downtown Boston or Cambridge: 15 to 40 minutes depending on traffic
• Brookline, Newton, or Somerville: 25 to 50 minutes
• The North Shore or South Shore: 40 to 75 minutes

Those windows are wide on purpose. A 7 a.m. departure and a 5 p.m. departure from the same address can differ by half an hour or more. When in doubt, budget for the worse case; arriving early at Logan is never the problem.

The peak periods to respect

Weekday mornings from about 7 to 9 a.m. and afternoons from 4 to 7 p.m. are the heaviest. Sunday evenings are deceptively busy as weekend travelers head home. Big events at Fenway or TD Garden can also snarl the roads near the airport. If your flight lands inside one of these windows, add a buffer.

Where a car service earns its keep

This is exactly the uncertainty a professional service removes. With Driviance airport transfers, we track your flight, watch the traffic, and build the buffer into your pickup time so you are not doing this math at 5 a.m. On the return, we monitor your inbound flight and adjust for early arrivals or delays, so the car is waiting when you land instead of the other way around. No parking, no rideshare surge, no circling.

Quick reference

Domestic, off-peak, close to the city: leave about 2 hours 30 minutes before departure. Domestic at rush hour or from the suburbs: 3 hours. International: add an hour to each. When you book with us, we will confirm a pickup time tuned to your exact address and flight.