The bad news: The FAA predicts a 45 percent increase in delayed flights along the East Coast this summer.
The good news: There’s some information you can use to potentially minimize those delays, and we’re here to help.
You can easily find out which airlines and airports have the best on-time track record each month by checking out the Bureau of Transportation Statistics website, or you can wait until a company such as FinanceBuzz analyzes and synthesizes the data for you into an easy-to-digest annual report. Obviously, we’re taking the easy road on this one.
Of the 50 busiest airports in the United States, Chicago O’Hare had the highest percentage of delays, with 36 percent of all flights experiencing some kind of hiccup in 2022. Rounding out the top 10 airports with the most delays were Baltimore/Washington, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Denver, Harry Reid International in Las Vegas, Newark, JFK, Miami, Phoenix, and Tampa.
Logan was just outside the top 10, with 21 percent of all domestic flights delayed in 2022.
That’s one way to look at delays, but the folks at FinanceBuzz took all that information and distilled it into the world’s most depressing algebra problem. They devised a formula that looked at the number of passengers who flew through an airport in 2022 and then factored in the frequency and length of delays.
Using that formula, they determined that Denver was the biggest time waster. More than 30 million passengers flew through Denver in 2022; based on the duration and regularity of delays, those travelers collectively wasted 509.2 million minutes of their time — that’s 969 years. Maybe it’s better to stick to percentages. But before we move on, using the depressing algebra problem, Logan ranked 15th with 14.2 million domestic passengers wasting a mere 416 years waiting for delayed flights.
Two airlines tied for the highest percentage of delays with 31 percent: Frontier Airlines and JetBlue. The average delay for a Frontier flight was 73 minutes, while JetBlue passengers waited an average of 78 minutes. Allegiant Air reported 29 percent of its flights were delayed. Southwest, which experienced the infamous Holiday Meltdown of 2022, was fourth, with 28 percent of its flights delayed last year.
Rounding out the top 10 most-delayed airlines of the year were Spirit Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, American Airlines, and United Airlines. Delta Air Lines had the lowest percentage of delays among the major domestic carriers. Only 17 percent of Delta’s flights were late.
Looking at airlines through that same depressing algebra equation, American Airlines was the biggest time waster, with its 138.6 million passengers wasting a collective 4,359 years suffering through delays. This is too sad to digest. Let’s move on to something simpler.
You can also avoid delays by looking at the days of the week. Try to avoid air travel on Friday and Sunday. That’s when 23 percent of flights are delayed. The best days to fly are Tuesday and Wednesday, when the percentage of delayed flights drops to 18 percent.
But even the most careful planning this summer can be upended by a thunderstorm, staffing issues, or technical problems. Keep the bar low, and assume you’ll be delayed during the busy summer season. Pack a book, download movies or TV shows, and bring snacks. Most importantly, try not to think about how many days of your life you’ve wasted because of flight delays.
Christopher Muther can be reached at christopher.muther@globe.com. Follow him @Chris_Muther and Instagram @chris_muther.