The only crossovers on both lists were Houston’s Hobby, fifth on the departures side and fourth on the arrivals, as well as Oakland coming in seventh for departures at 29.8 percent and eighth for arrivals at 28.8 percent.
“While it’s clear that arrivals and departures are very different acts, airport size is likely a big contributor,” Miller says. He notes that larger airports, like Chicago Midway, Denver, and New York’s JFK, have to deal with more air traffic congestion since each has more than 25,000 annual enplanements. Conversely, smaller airports tended to end up on the delayed departures list because they are “more likely to have to navigate less runway space, fewer flights, and less staff,” he explains.
Least Delayed U.S. Airports for Holiday Travel
On the flip side, Hawaiian airports tended to be the most punctual on both ends. Kauai’s Lihue Airport topped the list on both sides with 16.8 percent delayed departures and 17.3 delayed arrivals.
With departures, it was followed by Charlotte Douglas at 17.4 percent, Maui’s Kahului at 17.6 percent, the Big Island’s Kona at 17.9 percent, and, perhaps surprisingly, Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson with 19.4 percent. Meanwhile, the least delayed arrivals were followed by Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye at 17.9 percent, Manchester-Boston Regional at 18.4 percent, Kona at 18.9 percent, and North Carolina’s Piedmont Triad at 19.2 percent.
In this case, sunnier weather may be a factor, Miller says. Poor weather conditions caused 25 percent of the delays across the country last December and only 15 percent of Honolulu flights were affected. Additionally, the regional carrier Hawaiian Airlines has long had a track record of the lowest delays on both ends this time of year over the last decade.
Holiday Flight Delays By Airline
The carriers themselves may also play a major role in how smooth holiday travelers’ journeys are. Frontier tops the delays with 31.9 percent of its departures leaving behind schedule and 31.4 percent of its arrivals coming in late, while Southwest was just a trickle behind in late departures at a rate of 31.8 percent. JetBlue came in second on the delayed arrivals side with 31.4 percent.
The numbers are all spiked from the full-year percentages—in general, JetBlue’s departures are usually late 25 percent of time, Frontier’s 23.3 percent, and Allegiant’s 22 percent.
Delta and Hawaiian led the pack with the least delays, with Delta’s departures being late 19.1 percent of the time and arrivals 18.7 percent, and Hawaiian 15.6 percent on departures and 19.3 percent for arrivals. But both are also higher compared to their own delayed departure stats for the entire year, (13.4 for Delta and 9.6 percent for Hawaiian).
Miller says the holiday period delays can be attributed to greater passenger volume, staff shortages, inclement weather, greater air traffic, and operational issues. To hedge your bets, he says to consider the historical trends.
“When booking, you may want to consider the delay averages across airlines,” Miller says. “If you have different connection options when traveling home for the holidays, consider the delay averages within those options.”
