“I would say your average wait time is going to be three to five minutes,” Cheff said. “It’s pretty quick, and keeping shoes on speeds it up by a lot.”

Though Provo Airport does not have data to show minute-to-minute improvement since the change, Cheff said the lines during the busiest times of the day have been reduced, and the longest wait time they’ve seen recently was 15 minutes.

Long lines have never seemed to be an issue at Provo Airport, though, despite a record 900,000 travelers on 6,150 commercial flights passing through in 2024.

Cheff said TSA officers at Provo Airport are more likely to be overstaffed than understaffed.

“I’ve never been down on the floor where it’s been, ‘Oh we’re short officers, we can’t screen these passengers.’ There’s always officers that are ready to open up another lane if they have to,” he said. 

Beyond shaving a few minutes, Provo Airport’s security head thinks the benefits of keeping shoes on has to do with the overall happiness of travelers.

“Who wants to walk on the floor where other bare feet have been?” Cheff said. “Some people aren’t really fond of that kind of stuff and I think that’s something that the TSA, I’m guessing, looked at just to help the cleanliness benefits of heavy airport checkpoints.”

Kylie Hansen, who was preparing to fly out of Provo for the first time Monday, said she was an experienced traveler who has never enjoyed taking shoes off at security checkpoints.

“I don’t know what I’m stepping on,” she said. “So that’s why sometimes I just wear socks. This time, I did not, so I’m glad I don’t have to take them off.”

She also thinks keeping them on streamlines the process.

“In Hong Kong, we didn’t have to take our shoes off, and it was just zippity fast,” Hansen said.

Grant Brimhall, of Orem, had just flown out of and back into Provo Airport on Monday and called the security experience with shoes on “seamless.”

Ending the “shoes-off” travel policy is the second major change Homeland Security made through airport security this year, with the first being the implementation of REAL ID.

The policy has had little impact in Utah, where the Utah Department of Public Safety said more than 95% of state residents have REAL ID, thanks to the gold star on state driver’s licenses.

Cheff said those without REAL ID can still fly out of any airport but that it requires additional screening procedures.

He said safety is Provo Airport’s top priority.

“Once you get to our checkpoint, you can get into any airport,” Cheff said. “You never have to go through screening again. So our number one priority is the security of our airport and other airports, keeping the skies in America safe, but then also the safety of our passengers.”