'Airport Theory' is a ridiculous conceit, here's mine, though

As theories go, "Airport Theory" is not really up there with evolution or relativity. It is a real thing, a phenomenon which travellers in the US time themselves going through American airports, from bag drop via security to boarding gate. The theory is that you can arrive within three to 10 minutes.

- Simon Calder

But it is full of holes. For a start, parsing passengers at New York's Terminal 4 (used by Delta and Virgin Atlantic) will be barely halfway through queueing for security by the end of the first quarter-hour. Many Airport Theory influencers on TikTok and Instagram have essentially said round the UK (e.g. for "PreCheck" — a security fast track with the promise "99 per cent of passengers wait less than 10 minutes.")

All the Airport Theory videos I see are for US domestic flights, which means no labyrinthine duty-free spiral of doom to navigate, nor passport control. But attempting a Schiphol scamper at Amsterdam airport for a flight to the UK could teach even possibly the most transit-patient person, stilled by a late-running influencer. Ridiculous conceit that it is, at least Airport Theory invites travellers to consider how much time to allow before a flight; in the 1980s the British Airways Shuttle allowed you to turn up at the gate at Heathrow, Edinburgh or Glasgow 10 minutes before departure and still catch the plane — paying for your ticket on board.