We’ve all experienced a delayed flight whilst traveling at some point, and whilst this is usually completely out of your control, it doesn’t make it any less frustrating.

Flying with kids can be difficult enough at the best of times, especially if traveling with a baby or toddler, but lengthy delays can make an already stressful journey even more so.

But, perhaps surprisingly, you’re more likely to experience delays at some airports and on some airlines than others, and to find out which these are, we’ve taken a deep-dive into the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’s (BTS) ‘Airline On-Time Statistics and Delay Causes‘ data.

Keep reading to find out which airlines and airports are most likely to face delays based on two years’ data from July 2019 to July 2021.

Table of Contents:

The US Airports Where Your Flight is Most Likely to be Delayed or Cancelled

When traveling within the US, you’re more likely to be delayed when flying into some airports than others.

Having sight of delay statistics ahead of traveling can, at the very least, help you to set expectations and understand the chance that your flight is going to arrive later than planned.

At one airport, almost 1 in 4 flights arrives later than its scheduled time, with the top ten rankings on airport delays having at least a 1 in 5 chance of a delay.

Here are the airports where flight arrivals are most frequently delayed:

Rank	Airport	State	% On Time	% Late or Cancelled
1	Newark Liberty International	NJ	75.71%	24.29%
2	LaGuardia	NY	77.48%	22.52%
3	Dallas/Fort Worth International	TX	79.23%	20.77%
4	Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International	FL	79.78%	20.22%
5	Palm Beach International	FL	80.34%	19.66%
6=	Boston Logan International	MA	80.61%	19.39%
6=	Louis Armstrong New Orleans International	LA	80.61%	19.39%
8	Orlando International	FL	80.78%	19.22%
9	San Antonio International	TX	80.97%	19.03%
10=	John F. Kennedy International	NY	81.21%	18.79%
10=	San Francisco International	CA	81.21%	18.79%

Newark Liberty International Airport takes the top spot as the airport that faced the highest number of delayed arrivals between July 2019 and July 2021; with a total of 24.29% of flights running behind schedule.

The US Airports Where Your Flight is Least Likely to be Delayed

On the other hand, the chance of your flight being delayed can almost halve when flying into other airports across the country.

Here are the airports where flight arrivals are least frequently delayed:

Rank	Airport	State	% On Time	% Late or Cancelled
50	Daniel K Inouye International	HI	88.31%	11.69%
49	Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International	GA	87.32%	12.68%
48	Minneapolis-St Paul International	MN	87.27%	12.73%
47	Salt Lake City International	UT	87.22%	12.78%
46	Detroit Metro Wayne County	MI	86.90%	13.10%
45	Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International	CA	85.70%	14.30%
44	Portland International	OR	85.23%	14.77%
43	John Wayne Airport-Orange County	CA	85.12%	14.88%
42	Sacramento International	CA	84.95%	15.05%
41	Metropolitan Oakland International	CA	84.90%	15.10%
40	Charlotte Douglas International	NC	84.66%	15.34%

Daniel K Inouye International in Honolulu, Hawaii, takes the top spot as the airport that faced the fewest delayed arrivals between July 2019 and July 2021; with just 11.69% of flights running behind schedule.

Which US Airlines is Your Flight Most Likely to be Delayed With?

Just as some airports are more likely to experience delays than others, your choice of airline can also impact the chance of a late arrival.

It perhaps comes as no surprise that the three airlines with the highest percentage of late arrivals are all low-cost carriers.

Here are the airlines whose flights are most frequently delayed:

Rank	Airline	% On Time	% Late or Cancelled
1	Allegiant Air	72.69%	27.31%
2	JetBlue Airways	76.80%	23.20%
3	Frontier Airlines	78.76%	21.24%
4	Envoy Air	80.48%	19.52%
5	United Airlines	81.40%	18.60%
6	American Airlines	81.45%	18.55%
7	Spirit Airlines	82.04%	17.96%
8	Southwest Airlines	83.03%	16.97%
9	Alaska Airlines	83.18%	16.82%
10	SkyWest Airlines	84.01%	15.99%
11	Republic Airline	84.27%	15.73%
12	Delta Airlines	86.69%	13.31%
13	Hawaiian Airlines	89.00%	11.00%

Allegiant Air faced the highest percentage of delayed flights between July 2019 and July 2021; with a total of 27.31% of flights running behind schedule.

Are you looking for an airline where kids fly free? We have a comprehensive guide that we are constantly updating with information about which airlines kids fly free. To make your booking experience even smoother, we also have a list of the best flight booking sites to make sure your flight booking experience is not met with turbulence.

Methodology

We analyzed the Bureau of Transportation Statistics’s (BTS) ‘Airline On-Time Statistics and Delay Causes‘ data for the period of July 2019 to July 2021 to obtain the percentage of on-time flight arrivals for both the USA’s 50 busiest airports and the USA’s 13 major mainline passenger and regional passenger airlines.

According to BTS data, a flight is considered delayed when it arrived 15 or more minutes later than the schedule.

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James Brockbank

Founder at The Family Vacation Guide

A seasoned traveller, Dad, and avid sports tourist, James foundered The Family Vacation Guide to share his expert vacation experiences- especially when it comes to being a travelling family man.

Featured in Travel articles such as Travel + Leisure, TripSavvy and SFGate, you know you're reading some of the best vacation tips online.

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