Travel delays have the ability to derail even the most perfectly planned vacation, and a new study reveals the best and worst airports for on-time summer flights.
Financial website MagnifyMoney analyzed airport arrival data from the Department of Transportation for the 50 busiest U.S. airports between 2008 and 2017.
It found that, despite blizzards and worrisome weather, slightly over half (52 percent) of airports have more summer than winter travel delays. Huge hubs with more summer delays include airports in New York, Texas and Florida.
And one month is especially treacherous: 76 percent of the airports analyzed had the most summer delays in June. (Using 2017 flight data, Expedia found that June is also a more expensive summer month for airfare, with the average ticket costing roughly $100 more than in August, the cheapest summer month for airfare.)
The MagnifyMoney study also revealed that delays are increasingly common, with 54 percent of airports logging worse summer arrival rates in 2017 than in 2016.
So, how does your local airport stack up?
Newark Liberty International airport in Newark, New Jersey, is the worst airport for on-time summer travel, with only 67 percent of those arrivals clocking in on time, based on a 10-year average from 2008 to 2017. New York City’s LaGuardia Airport comes in second, followed by San Francisco International Airport.
As for best on-time arrival rates, Honolulu, Hawaii, claimed the top spot, with 86.7 percent of airport arrivals being on-time in the summer, based on a 10-year average between 2008 and 2017. Salt Lake City, Utah, ranks second and Orange County, California, rounds out the top three.
The top 10 worst airports for on-time summer travel, according to MagnifyMoney:
