Airports With the Worst Records for Cancellations and Delays

Travel|Airports: Plan Ahead and Check Your Timing

During past summer’s question boom, the main enforcement of Heathrow Airport successful London asked airlines to halt selling tickets due to the fact that of staffing shortages. Amsterdam Schiphol acceptable a capableness cap. London Gatwick chopped backmost connected flights for July and August. Air Canada reduced its fig of flights by astir 15 percent.

What should travelers expect for summertime 2023? And wherever are they astir apt to tally into delays and cancellations?

The formation tracking website FlightAware whitethorn connection immoderate clues: Between Memorial Day and Labor Day successful 2022, the U.S. airports with the highest fig of delays and cancellations, successful order, were: Newark Liberty International Airport, La Guardia Airport and Kennedy Airport successful New York; Reagan National successful Washington; Miami International; Orlando International; Boston Logan International; and Charlotte Douglas International, successful Charlotte, N.C.

In Newark and Orlando, the worst for delays past summer, astir 35 percent of flights departing from those airports didn’t get astatine their destinations connected time. Newark besides held the rubric for astir cancellations past summer, with astir 9 percent of flights scratched entirely.

Whether these airports volition again beryllium the culprits of outsize question misery is hard to know. Some are taking preventive measures to effort to caput disconnected the summertime surge.

At Toronto Pearson, limits are being placed connected the fig of flights arriving and departing from the airdrome this summer, and improvements similar contactless check-in and bolstered staffing are being enactment successful place. Amsterdam Schiphol has nary plans for a summertime cap, nor does Heathrow.

In the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration published a note saying that determination would beryllium accrued delays successful the Northeast this summertime compared with 2022, and truthful the bureau is loosening restrictions connected airlines operating successful Washington, D.C., and New York to mitigate disruptions.

But determination are immoderate strategies that passengers tin usage to summation the accidental of pain-free travel. For one, avoiding the airports with the highest levels of delays and cancellations past summertime whitethorn beryllium a bully idea. And flying nonstop eliminates the hazard of thing going incorrect with the connection. But since the worst airports are besides immoderate of the biggest hubs for large airlines, it’s not ever realistic to debar them, and depending connected wherever you are flying from, you whitethorn beryllium forced to connect.

But passengers tin debar traveling astatine highest times, specified arsenic erstwhile long-haul flights arrive, which tin origin overcrowding. Most overnight long-haul flights from the United States to Europe get astatine their destination cities betwixt 6 a.m. and noon section time. The Customs and Border Protection hold times website tin springiness a consciousness of the busiest times for planetary flights to get successful the United States, truthful you tin program astir them.

Booking the archetypal formation of the time tin besides beryllium a savvy move, due to the fact that if the formation is canceled, you person a amended accidental of getting connected different formation the aforesaid day. Building successful immoderate transportation cushion clip is an casual mode to debar headaches.

Staying apprised arsenic to what complications the summertime upwind whitethorn bring tin besides help. In the past, the fume from wildfires successful the Western United States has affected airports successful San Francisco, Denver, Seattle and Reno, Nev. The hurricane play tin origin delays astatine Gulf Coast and Atlantic airports similar Houston, New Orleans, Miami and Atlanta. Even the vigor itself tin origin problems: Last summertime London’s Luton airdrome had to shut down aft scorching temperatures caused the runway to buckle, and Phoenix has faced akin issues.