You’re headed home for the holidays—and hopefully, barring any flight delays, you make it before the turkey hits the table or the holiday festivities get underway. A new report from Upgraded Points, a points and miles website, reveals the airports where travelers are most likely to be delayed during the winter holiday season.
While you might expect airports in winter wonderlands to top the list, the most flight delays actually happen at airports in states with mild weather, the analysis found.
“Weather as one of the top causes of holiday flight delays is a common misconception,” Audrey Small, a research assistant with Upgraded Points said.
In fact, across all carriers and airports that the team analyzed, weather was a cause of flight delays in November and December about 25 percent of the time in 2022 and even less frequently in 2021.
“The large majority of delayed flights are caused by other factors, such as air carrier delays, an aircraft arriving late, and national aviation system delays,” Small said.
Flight delays are an inevitable part of traveling, especially as the 2023 holiday travel season is bound to be a busy one. Forty-eight percent of people plan to travel during the holiday, according to Deloitte, which is up 31 percent from last year. Airports will be especially hectic, as the Transportation Security Administration predicts the busiest holiday season on record.
But knowing which airports and carriers tend to have more delays can help you avoid travel hiccups, especially if you’ve got options when it comes to the routes on your itinerary or which carrier you fly.
To determine the U.S. airports most prone to holiday flight delays, the researchers at Upgraded Points analyzed on-time performance data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation. The team looked at data from 2014 to 2022 during the winter holiday season, capturing data between Dec. 14 to Jan. 5. The study evaluated the 100 busiest U.S. airports and the 10 largest U.S. airlines, determined by Federal Aviation Administration data.
The average percentage of delayed flights from airports is 25%, according to Upgraded Points. Here are the airports that have higher-than-average delayed departures.
No. 1: El Paso International Airport (ELP) in Texas: 32.8%
No. 2: Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport (SJU) in Puerto Rico: 30.7%
No. 3: Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) in New Mexico: 30.6%
No. 4: San Antonio International Airport (SAT) in Texas: 30.3%
No. 5: William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) in Houston, Texas: 30.2%
No. 6: Will Rogers World Airport (OKC) in Oklahoma: 30%
No. 7: Oakland International Airport (OAK) in California: 29.8%
No. 8: Reno-Tahoe International Airport (RNO) in Nevada: 29.7%
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The top U.S. airlines and airports improved upon their Thanksgiving on-time performance this year compared to 2022.According to the latest analysis from leading global travel data provider OAG, the on-time performance of major U.S. airlines improved by one percentage point over last year's holiday, reaching 85.7 percent.OAG examined the on-time performance of all airports and airlines on Thanksgiving Eve (November 22), which is one of the busiest travel days of the year. In 2023, airlines and airports overcame not only crowds but weather disruptions to improve upon last year.According to OAG, nearly 18,400 flights arrived on time—within 15 minutes of the scheduled time—among the major U.S. carriers on November 22. Two airlines—Delta Air Lines (91.5 percent) and United Airlines (90.5 percent)—even achieved over 90 percent on-time performance across their domestic networks.Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines also saw improvements over last year, with on-time performance rates of 89.4 percent and 89.3 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, fifth-ranked Southwest Airlines reported a dip from 88.5 percent in 2022 to 86.9 percent in 2023.American Airlines (84.4 percent), Allegiant Air (84.2 percent), Frontier Airlines (76.2 percent) and Breeze Airways (62.3 percent) all improved upon last year while Sun Country Airlines (84.8 percent), JetBlue (64.8 percent), Spirit Airlines (61.7 percent) and Cape Air (33 percent) all lost ground compared to Thanksgiving Eve 2022.
Traveling during the holidays is stressful enough and every little obstacle along the way can feel amplified. While many factors can play a part in flight interruptions and delays, a new study by Upgraded Points takes a look back at nearly a decade of historical data spanning 2014 to 2022 to find out which airports tend to have the best and worst track records for punctuality during the holiday season.
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