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We aimed to investigate the associations of working hour characteristics based on the international and local definitions with sickness absence (SA) among airport security personnel. The payroll-based registry data of daily working hours for 2016-2019 at one airport was limited to those with ≥30 work shifts in a year (n=377-687 employees). The conditional Poisson model for incidence rate ratios (IRR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) was used for analyses. Based on the international definitions, only a few associations were found: each one-unit increase in weekly working hours and the number of consecutive working days were associated with a lower likelihood of SA. The local definitions were more consistently associated with SA: Each one-unit increase in shift length and time between shifts, higher variation in shift length, and the number of consecutive evening and night shifts were associated with a higher likelihood of SA. To conclude, especially the local definitions of working hour characteristics seem to be important limits for short SA. Thus, high variability of shift lengths and prolonged shifts could be avoided to reduce the risk of SA. Overall, keeping the working hours within any of the recommendations among airport security personnel could support well-being and health.