There’s no disappointment quite like showing up to the airport early and using your Clear or TSA PreCheck membership to breeze through security only to get to the gate and find out your plane is going to be an hour or more late. Depending on which airport you live closest to, this experience might happen to you more often than you’d like.
So, if you’re a frequent flyer who’s considering a move or you’re booking a connecting flight and deciding which airport is your safest bet for making your connection, it helps to know just how reliable the U.S.’s major airports are when it comes to keeping flights on schedule.
To help you figure that out, we compared the on-time performance of 30 major U.S. airports and picked out the five best and the five worst when it comes to flight delays. The rankings are based on 2024 data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
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Nationwide, 78.1% of all flights in 2024 were on time, which is defined by the BTS as landing at its destination within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time.
But the top five airports that had the best on-time performance last year all managed to keep over 80% of flights on schedule. As for the worst five, on-time performance ranged from a surprisingly low 68.8% up to 74.56%.
Top 5 Airports With the Fewest Flight Delays
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If you want to minimize your risk of being delayed on your next family vacation, consider booking your flight out of one of these five airports – all of which managed to keep over 80% of flights on schedule.
1. Salt Lake City International
Coming in first place is Salt Lake City International, boasting an impressive 83.96% on-time flight performance. The Utah-based airport handles about 13.5 million passengers per year, who can all rest reasonably assured that their flight will be on time.
While the Salt Lake City airport has earned top billing, it is worth noting that this airport and the second place airport handle the fewest number of passengers among the top five. The lower traffic volume may help minimize the risk of delays.
2. Washington Dulles International
The second best airport when it comes to on-time performance is Washington Dulles International. With 82.99% of flights being on time in 2024, you have a good chance of arriving or departing on schedule.
However, if you do get delayed at the DC airport, settle in for a long wait. Of the 30 major airports reviewed for this article, it had one of the worst average departure delay times. At 79.52 minutes, you could watch most of a feature-length film while still waiting on your flight to take off.
In case you’re wondering, Philadelphia International has the longest wait time for departure delays, with delayed flights taking off 81.23 minutes later than scheduled on average. But with an on-time performance of 76.66% last year, the airport did just well enough to avoid making the bottom five.
3. Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International
With an on-time performance of 81.62% in 2024, Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International ranks in third place. Considering the nation’s busiest airport handles over 52 million passengers a year, it’s no small feat that it ranked this highly.
The wait time for a delayed departing flight is also the lowest among the top five, averaging just over 65 minutes compared to average delays ranging from about 70 to 80 mins at the other top-ranking airports.
4. Minneapolis-St. Paul International
Minneapolis-St. Paul International boasts an on-time performance of 81.12%, which is good news for the roughly 18 million travelers passing through the Midwest airport.
The wait time if your departure is delayed isn’t too bad, either (relatively speaking). On average, delayed passengers wait just under 70 minutes for their flight to leave.
5. Detroit Metro Wayne County
Rounding out the top five is Detroit Metro Wayne County. The 16 million passengers that fly through the Motor City’s airport have an 80.99% chance of their flight being on time. If their plane is late taking off, they’ll wait an average of nearly 73 minutes.
The 5 Worst Airports for Flight Delays
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California and Florida airports dominate the list of airports with the worst on-time performance in 2024. But, in defense of the nation’s sunniest states, the main cause of delays at most airports listed below was a late-arriving aircraft, which isn’t really in their control.
5. San Diego International and Orlando International
Among the 30 major airports, San Diego and Orlando tied for fifth worst airport with both achieving an on-time performance of exactly 74.56% last year. For both, the most common cause of delays was a late-arriving aircraft.
While the two airports tied on percentage, it’s important to note that Orlando handled more than double the passengers – nearly 28 million compared to San Diego’s 12.8 million. However, San Diego beat Orlando on length of delays, with wait times averaging under 68 minutes compared to nearly 71 minutes at Orlando.
4. Dallas/Fort Worth International
Exactly 74% of flights were on time at Dallas’s airport last year. To its credit, the Texas airport handles over 42 million passengers per year, making it the second busiest airport in the United States.
Still, it ranked low both in percentage of delays and the wait time on those delays. If you’re stuck at Dallas/Fort Worth International waiting for your flight to depart, expect to wait 74 minutes on average.
3. Tampa International
The 12 million passengers going through Tampa International every year have a 73.94% chance of being on time. The wait time if you are delayed isn’t great either.
On average, delayed flights don’t depart until nearly 76 minutes after their scheduled departure time. If you’ve got a connecting flight, make sure there’s plenty of time between them if you’re flying from Tampa Bay.
2. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
Coming in second to last — though sitting at a comfortable distance from last place —is Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, where 73.86% of flights are on time. The South Florida airport handles about 17 million passengers per year.
Despite having one of the worst on-time performances, the South Florida airport at least manages to keep delays relatively short. On average, departing passengers who are delayed wait just over 69 minutes for the flight to leave.
1. San Francisco International
With an on-time performance of just 68.89%, San Francisco International is the worst airport for delays by a long shot. And late-arriving aircraft can’t be blamed here as the airport’s most common causes of delay were closed runways followed by weather — given the city’s famously mild weather, this must be regarding the fog.
On the bright side, if your flight is delayed at SFO, you’ll have more time to hang out in the Centurion Lounge, the ultra-exclusive airport lounge for customers with certain American Express credit cards.
How to Avoid Airport Delays
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Whether your closest airport ranked in the top, bottom or somewhere in between, there are a few things you can do as a traveler to reduce your risk of facing flight delays regardless of which airport you’re flying out of.
Book flights earlier in the day
If you only follow one tip from this article, this is the one to pick. Of all the flights at all the airports that were delayed last year, the most common cause for the delay was a late-arriving aircraft.
A plane that arrives late is likely to get a late start on its next route as well. As the day goes on, small delays can have a ripple effect, creating longer and longer waits later on. Scheduling a morning departure improves your odds of being one of the first flights on that aircraft’s schedule.
Avoid tight connections
If you can avoid connections altogether, that’s your best bet. But if you do need to book a flight with stops in between you and your destination, make sure to pad those stops with a little extra time. That way, if you’re delayed on the first leg of your flight, you can still make your connecting flight on time.
Typically, travelers recommend about 90 minutes between flights for domestic travel and two or three hours between flights for international trips. When the time between connecting flights is short, you run the risk of needing to be rebooked on the next available connecting flight. That might be an hour later or it might be a full day later.
Give yourself wiggle room for delays
You may not be able to avoid all delays, but you can prevent them from ruining your trip by scheduling in some wiggle room. This is especially advisable when you absolutely need to be at your destination by a particular time.
If you’re traveling for a wedding, for example, plan to arrive at least a day early. That way, if your flight is delayed, your later departure still gets you to the destination before the actual wedding.
Choose the better-performing airport for connections
If you’re choosing between two flights that have layovers, check both airports where your layover would be on the BTS’s on-time statistics dashboard.
Choose the one with the better on-time performance in the most recent month for which data is available. You can even filter the data by carrier to see the on-time performance of the specific airline you’d be flying with at each airport.
Check your information right after booking
While most causes of delays are out of your control as a passenger, one cause that is in your control is mismatched passenger information. While you might already know to book with your full name rather than your nickname, details as simple as leaving out your middle name when it is included on your passport can be enough to cause issues when checking in.
Have a hyphenated name? Make sure it looks the same on your booking confirmation as it does on your ID. Even if you typed it in correctly, some systems might jumble it because the name entry field isn’t equipped to deal with hyphenated names. You’ll want to sort that out with the airline well in advance of your flight.
Another common issue is booking right after a name change. If you’re recently married, for example, and you’ve already changed your name on your ID, but your airline loyalty program still has your old name saved in its systems, you’ll run into issues at the gate.
Other details you’ll want to doublecheck include:
- The airport you’re departing from, especially if you live near multiple airports. You don’t want to accidentally head to the wrong airport because you swore that’s where you were scheduled to depart from.
- Departure time. Check this again in the days leading up to your flight, in case there’s a last-minute change.
- Baggage allowance. If you’re planning to check a bag, doublecheck that you actually added that to your booking. While you can usually do this at the airport if you forget, some airlines charge more for reserving a checked bag at the airport. Even if your airline doesn’t, this adds an extra step and extra time to your check in process.
Know your rights
While airline policies vary on what they’ll offer passengers whose flights are delayed or cancelled, the Department of Transportation (DOT) does set a minimum standard that all airlines must follow. As of this writing, these are your rights when it comes to delayed or cancelled flights:
- If your flight is cancelled, you’re entitled to a refund, even if you have a non-refundable ticket. That “non-refundable” status refers to refunds when you cancel your booking, not when the flight itself has been cancelled. If you accept an alternative booking or travel voucher offered by the airline, you won’t get a refund. But if you choose not to be rebooked, the airline must refund the ticket and price and any associated fees to your original payment method. You do not have to accept a travel voucher or credit if you’d rather get your money back.
- If your flight is significantly delayed or changed and you choose not to travel as a result, you’re entitled to a refund. On domestic flights, this means a departure or arrival time that is three or more hours different than originally scheduled. For international flights, the threshold is six hours. Other significant changes that are eligible for a refund include a change of airport, an increase in the number of connections or, for those with disabilities, a change to an airport or aircraft that is less accessible than the one you originally booked.
- If your class of service is changed — such as being downgraded from business to economy — you are entitled to a refund of the difference in fare price. This is true even if the airline was forced to downgrade you because the rebooked flight or new aircraft doesn’t have the class you originally booked.
- If your checked bag is more than 12 hours late on domestic flights or more than 15-30 hours later on international flights (depending on length of flight), you are entitled to a refund of the checked bag fee, even if your bag wasn’t declared lost.
- If you are entitled to a refund, you are entitled to a prompt, automatic refund to your original payment method. This means you aren’t required to proactively request it, though you may have to if the airline didn’t automatically refund you. It also means that refund must be issued within seven days for credit cards or 20 days for all other payment methods. Lastly, it means you do not have to accept travel credits or other forms of compensation. The airline will likely offer one of these alternative forms of compensation first but, you are allowed to refuse them. And, if you refuse, you are entitled to a refund to your original payment method, whether that was cash, card or airline miles.
You may have additional rights or options under the airline’s own policy, which it is required to uphold. You can check and compare the cancellation and delay policies of many major airlines on the DOT Airline Cancellation and Delay Dashboard.
If you believe the airline is violating one of its own policies or refusing a refund you believe you’re entitled to, you can file a complaint with DOT.
But first, request the refund from the airline in writing — either via email or via an online chat service. While the refund should be automatic, whether or not you formally request it, having these written records will help when filing a complaint with DOT.
