Flight delays are a seemingly never-ending subject within the airline business. In 2023 up to now, practically 1 / 4 of US home flights arrived late or have been canceled.
In most industries such a excessive delay fee can be thought of unacceptable, however in air journey, delays are tolerated and even anticipated, though they trigger missed connections, misplaced baggage, and extra bills.
I compiled information from 1987-2023 from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics into an enormous spreadsheet to carry out an in-depth information evaluation of flight information. From right here, I extracted a sequence of findings, together with:
- Causes of airline delays
- Most and least delayed airways, airports, and states
- The affect of finances airways on flight delays
- Airline delay efficiency over time
Key US Airline Delay Statistics
- Most airline delays in 2022-2023 have been attributable to the airline, not unhealthy climate, closed runways, or air site visitors controllers.
- Over a 3rd of delayed flights are attributable to a series response of delays for an plane earlier in its journey.
- Frontier is the most-delayed airline, with practically 35% of flights departing late in 2023.
- Republic Airline had the fewest delays in 2023: solely 12% of Republic flights have been over quarter-hour late.
- The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Worldwide Airport (FLL) is the worst main airport for canceled or delayed flights. Over a 3rd of flights from FLL have been delayed or canceled in 2023.
- The Minneapolis-St. Paul Worldwide Airport (MSN) was the most effective main airport for delayed flights, with over 80% of flights leaving on time.
- Small regional airports in Idaho and Montana have the most effective on-time efficiency within the nation.
- Mississippi is the state with the bottom delay share, at simply 14%.
- Delaware had an abysmal 55% of flights delayed in 2022, although no information is on the market for 2023.
Airline Delay Causes
Beginning in 2003, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics started requiring main airways to report the explanation for delayed flights. Every delayed flight is assigned a code regarding considered one of 5 delay causes.
Listed here are the definitions of the delay causes in accordance with the Bureau of Transportation Statistics:
- CarrierDelay: The reason for the cancellation or delay was on account of circumstances throughout the airline’s management (e.g. upkeep or crew issues, plane cleansing, baggage loading, fueling, and so forth.).
- WeatherDelay: Vital meteorological circumstances (precise or forecasted) that, within the judgment of the provider, delays or prevents the operation of a flight, corresponding to a twister, blizzard, or hurricane.
- NASDelay: Delays and cancellations attributable to the nationwide aviation system that check with a broad set of circumstances, corresponding to non-extreme climate circumstances, airport operations, heavy site visitors quantity, and air site visitors management.
- LateAircraftDelay: A earlier flight with the identical plane arrived late, inflicting the current flight to depart late.
- SecurityDelay: Delays or cancellations attributable to evacuation of a terminal or concourse, re-boarding of plane due to safety breach, inoperative screening gear, and/or lengthy strains in extra of 29 minutes at screening areas.
Moreover, for the reason that NAS class is sort of broad, it’s divided into extra particular causes:
- Climate: Non-emergency weather-caused delays
- Quantity: Delays attributable to air site visitors controllers because of the quantity of flights
- Tools: Delays attributable to issues with gear
- Closed Runway: Delays attributable to a runway closed on account of building or site visitors management causes
- Different: All different delays associated to the NAS and air site visitors management
For this report, I broke out every delay trigger by share. I mixed all emergency and non-emergency climate delays beneath one class for simplicity.
Be aware that the desk under solely consists of delays, not canceled or diverted flight operations.
| Airline Delays by Trigger | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 2023 | |||
| Delay Trigger | % of Delays | Avg. Minutes | % of Delays | Avg. Minutes |
| Air Provider Delay | 37.4% | 72 | 33.3% | 76 |
| Climate Delay (ALL) | 15.5% | 69 | 16.7% | 72 |
| Safety Delay | 0.3% | 47 | 0.3% | 48 |
| Plane Arriving Late | 34.4% | 75 | 37.0% | 79 |
| NAS Quantity | 0.1% | 36 | 0.1% | 37 |
| NAS Tools Delay | 0.2% | 44 | 0.7% | 86 |
| NAS Closed Runway | 0.7% | 38 | 1.2% | 41 |
| NAS Different | 0.0% | 46 | 0.0% | 41 |
Apparently, in 2023 the most typical trigger for delayed flight departure was the plane arriving late. Basically, arrival delays delayed the subsequent flight.
Admittedly, this isn’t a really satisfying reply, as a result of it doesn’t instantly point out a root trigger.
What this reveals, although, is the domino impact of flight delays. One late arrival delays the subsequent flight departure, which ends up in one other delayed arrival, and so forth. Each single delay has damaging impacts down the road.
It’s a truthful assumption then, that each flight that was delayed by an plane arriving late might be attributed to one of many different causes farther again within the plane’s itinerary.
Airways wish to cite climate circumstances or different points outdoors their management because the causes of flight delays, however in actuality, the most typical root trigger is the airline itself. Accounting for 37.4% of flight delays in 2022 and 33.3% in 2023, air provider points trigger extra delays than all different root causes mixed (excluding late arrivals as a root trigger).
Sadly, there isn’t concrete information specifying what precisely airways did to trigger these delays, solely that the airline is accountable. Particular causes might embrace staffing shortages, plane upkeep, or delays in boarding passengers.
The important thing takeaway is that almost all of delays—these attributable to air provider operations and by the domino impact of arrival delays—are preventable and are inside airways’ management.
Flight Delay Statistics by Airline
All US airways with greater than 0.5% of the market share are legally required to report on-time efficiency, delay occasions, and delay causes for each flight.
The chart under reveals the chances of flights which might be on time, delayed, or canceled by every airline in 2022 and 2023.
| Airways Ranked by 2023 Delay Proportion | ||
|---|---|---|
| Airline | % Delayed in 2022 | % Delayed in 2023 |
| Republic Airline | 15.8% | 11.9% |
| Endeavor Air | 14.0% | 14.1% |
| SkyWest Airways | 15.2% | 14.9% |
| PSA Airways | 16.9% | 14.9% |
| Envoy Air | 15.2% | 16.8% |
| Alaska Airways | 17.4% | 18.9% |
| Delta Air Traces | 16.4% | 20.0% |
| United Airways | 19.6% | 23.6% |
| American Airways | 21.1% | 24.1% |
| Hawaiian Airways | 21.1% | 25.1% |
| Allegiant Air | 29.4% | 25.5% |
| Southwest Airways | 27.9% | 26.5% |
| Spirit Airways | 23.1% | 31.1% |
| JetBlue Airways | 31.3% | 31.2% |
| Frontier Airways | 31.1% | 34.9% |
Throughout all home flights, 24.1% have been delayed or canceled in 2023 (with delayed being outlined as departing quarter-hour or extra after the scheduled time). The general common departure time was 14.43 minutes after the scheduled time.
Most On-Time Airline: Republic Airline
Republic Airline has the most effective flight-on-time efficiency of all main US carriers in 2023. With solely 11.9% of flights departing late, Republic Airline performs about 10% higher than the nationwide common. That may be a notable enchancment from 2022, when Republic had 15.8% of flights delayed.
Republic Airline flights additionally depart 10 minutes sooner than common, solely 4.67 minutes after the scheduled time.
Apparently, though it has the most effective on-time departure fee, Republic has the worst flight cancellation fee, with 3.32% of flights canceled in 2023.
Most Delayed Airline: Frontier Airways
Frontier is the worst performer. A dismal 34.9% of Frontier home flights departed late in 2023. Meaning nicely over a 3rd of Frontier flights both depart greater than quarter-hour late or are canceled. Frontier’s common flight departure time is 29.43 minutes after the scheduled time.
Flight Delays in Massive vs Small Airways
It’s fascinating that the highest 5 airways for on-time share in 2023 are all fairly small, with lower than 3% of the market share. All however SkyWest have lower than 1.5% of the market share.
The worst performers (Frontier, JetBlue, and Spirit) are additionally on the smaller finish, although bigger than the airways within the prime on-time rankings.
The “Huge 4” US airways (Delta Air Traces, American Airways, United Airways, and Southwest Airways) are throughout the center of the pack. Maybe that’s solely logical although. As a result of giant air carriers function an enormous quantity of flights, on account of rules of scale, their efficiency is sure to even out nearer to the nationwide common.
Alternatively, smaller airways usually tend to be outliers just because they don’t have the identical quantity and variety of flights.
Of the Huge 4, Delta Air Traces carried out finest with 78.6% of home flights operated by Delta departing on time. Delta additionally has one of many lowest charges for flight cancellations, simply 1.41%.
The fifth-largest airline within the nation by income, Alaska Airways is the biggest provider to have an on-time fee higher than 80% in 2023.
Finances Airways and Delays
Maybe unsurprisingly, finances airways carry out worse with regards to delayed flights. The underside 4 in 2023—Southwest Airways, Spirit Airways, JetBlue Airways, and Frontier Airways—are all lower-cost carriers.
There are lots of explanations for why finances airways have extra delays. These embrace staffing points, inadequate upkeep, and fewer environment friendly operations.
Alternatively, there’s proof that finances airways have an total constructive affect on the punctuality of an airport.
A examine by Ha V. Pham on the College of Virginia Division of Economics discovered that airports with the best share of low-cost airline flights have shorter delay occasions.
I’ll say that one other method. If an airport has extra flights from finances airways, the typical delay time for all flights from that airport is decrease.
This will appear counterintuitive, however Pham’s analysis means that the quick-turnaround strategy of finances carriers frees up airport assets for different airways to make use of.
Airline Delay Statistics by Airport
Variations in airline delays between completely different airports may present key insights. Because it seems, there’s a fair bigger distinction in on-time efficiency between airports than between airways.
Airports with the Most Flight Delays
The desk under lists the 5 US airports with the worst on-time arrival charges in 2023. This evaluation doesn’t take diverted flights under consideration, however the share of flights diverted is sufficiently small to be non-significant.
| Airports with the Most Delays | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airport | Code | % On Time | % Delayed | % Canceled |
| Stockton, CA: Stockton Metro | SCK | 51.9 | 47.8 | 0.3 |
| Aguadilla, PR: Rafael Hernandez | BQN | 56.0 | 41.1 | 2.9 |
| Ashland, WV: Tri-State/Milton J. Ferguson Subject | HTS | 61.7 | 37.5 | 0.8 |
| Santa Maria, CA: Santa Maria Public | SMX | 63.9 | 36.1 | 0.0 |
| Fort Lauderdale, FL: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Worldwide | FLL | 64.3 | 33.1 | 2.6 |
The primary level to notice with the info above is that many of the airports with the worst on-time efficiency are smaller regional airports. As with airways, this is sensible contemplating the smaller scale of those airports.
With so few flights, small regional airports usually tend to be outliers. In actual fact, we’ll see that probably the most on-time airports are additionally smaller regional ones. A bigger airport, then again, merely has extra quantity to common out.
The exception right here is the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood Worldwide Airport, which had 33.1% of its flights delayed and a pair of.6% canceled up to now in 2023. The truth that this main worldwide airport ranks with these smaller outliers is putting.
After we have a look at the worst delay percentages solely amongst main worldwide airports, we will see that Fort Lauderdale had a noticeably decrease on-time share. Different main airports with excessive delay charges embrace Orlando, Denver, Baltimore, and Las Vegas.
| Main Airports with the Most Delays | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airport | Code | % On Time | % Delayed | % Canceled |
| Fort Lauderdale, FL: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood Worldwide | FLL | 64.3 | 33.1 | 2.6 |
| Orlando, FL: Orlando Worldwide | MCO | 67.3 | 31.1 | 1.7 |
| Denver, CO: Denver Worldwide | DEN | 67.4 | 30.6 | 2.1 |
| Baltimore, MD: Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall | BWI | 68.2 | 30.6 | 1.2 |
| Las Vegas, NV: Harry Reid Worldwide | LAS | 68.4 | 30.2 | 1.4 |
Airports with the Fewest Flight Delays
When taking a look at airports with the fewest delays, small regional airports once more present up because the outliers, with delay charges as little as 2.8%. I’ve included tables under each for absolutely the highest on-time share in addition to main airports with the best on-time share.
| Airports with the Fewest Delays | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airport | Code | % On Time | % Delayed | % Canceled |
| Pocatello, ID: Pocatello Regional | PIH | 97.2 | 2.8 | 0.0 |
| Twin Falls, ID: Joslin Subject | TWF | 95.9 | 3.2 | 0.9 |
| Butte, MT: Bert Mooney | BTM | 93.9 | 4.1 | 2.0 |
| Elko, NV: Elko Regional | EKO | 93.0 | 6.6 | 0.5 |
| West Yellowstone, MT: Yellowstone | WYS | 92.8 | 6.5 | 0.7 |
| Main Airports with the Fewest Delays | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airport | Code | % On Time | % Delayed | % Canceled |
| Minneapolis, MN: Minneapolis-St Paul Worldwide | MSP | 80.9 | 17.3 | 1.8 |
| Seattle, WA: Seattle/Tacoma Worldwide | SEA | 80.8 | 18.3 | 0.8 |
| Washington, DC: Ronald Reagan Washington Nationwide | DCA | 80.5 | 17.6 | 1.9 |
| Salt Lake Metropolis, UT: Salt Lake Metropolis Worldwide | SLC | 79.8 | 19.1 | 1.1 |
| Detroit, MI: Detroit Metro Wayne County | DTW | 79.4 | 19.0 | 1.6 |
Apparently, 4 out of 5 of probably the most on-time airports within the nation are small regional airports in Idaho and Montana. Probably the most on-time main airports, then again, will not be concentrated in anybody area.
The Pocatello Regional Airport has the most effective on-time efficiency within the nation, with simply 2.8% of flights delayed in 2023. It additionally has a powerful cancellation report, with no flight cancellations in any respect in 2023 up to now.
Contemplating solely bigger airports, the outcomes are far much less dramatic. The Minneapolis-St. Paul Worldwide Airport had the most effective on-time efficiency of any main airport in 2023. 17.3% of flights have been delayed, and 1.8% have been canceled.
That’s solely a 5-point distinction from the nationwide common of twenty-two.4% of flights delayed. Minneapolis had extra canceled flights on common: the nationwide common is 1.7%.
These outcomes point out that smaller airports have rather more skill to dramatically enhance efficiency than worldwide airports with bigger flight volumes.
That is sensible contemplating that airways trigger way more delays than airport operations. Smaller airports usually have a small variety of completely different airways working flights. Bigger airports usually have many extra airways working, which suggests poor airline efficiency will overpower efforts made by the airport towards punctuality to a big extent.
Airline Delay Statistics by State/Territory
Main variations in on-time efficiency may also be seen between completely different states. The desk under reveals the share of flights delayed in every US state or territory in 2022 and 2023.
| 2023 Rank | State/Territory | Delays in 2022 | Delays in 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mississippi | 16.6% | 14.0% |
| 2 | Idaho | 14.6% | 15.4% |
| 3 | Alaska | 18.5% | 15.8% |
| 4 | Oregon | 16.2% | 16.3% |
| 5 | Kansas | 18.0% | 16.8% |
| 6 | Oklahoma | 17.8% | 17.6% |
| 7 | Montana | 17.5% | 17.9% |
| 8 | North Dakota | 23.4% | 18.0% |
| 9 | Wisconsin | 17.9% | 18.0% |
| 10 | Vermont | 21.0% | 18.1% |
| 11 | Indiana | 20.2% | 18.6% |
| 12 | Arkansas | 19.3% | 18.6% |
| 13 | Minnesota | 18.6% | 18.7% |
| 14 | Washington | 18.8% | 18.8% |
| 15 | South Dakota | 20.8% | 19.0% |
| 16 | Iowa | 17.5% | 19.1% |
| 17 | Nebraska | 19.8% | 19.2% |
| 18 | Kentucky | 19.9% | 19.3% |
| 19 | South Carolina | 20.8% | 19.3% |
| 20 | Alabama | 20.6% | 19.5% |
| 21 | Utah | 16.5% | 19.7% |
| 22 | Ohio | 21.2% | 19.7% |
| 23 | Virginia | 23.0% | 20.2% |
| 24 | Pennsylvania | 19.9% | 20.2% |
| 25 | Michigan | 18.9% | 20.4% |
| 26 | Maine | 24.1% | 20.4% |
| 27 | Rhode Island | 23.2% | 20.9% |
| 28 | New Mexico | 20.2% | 21.0% |
| 29 | West Virginia | 24.0% | 21.7% |
| 30 | California | 20.3% | 22.0% |
| 31 | Hawaii | 20.6% | 22.0% |
| 32 | Wyoming | 20.2% | 22.1% |
| 33 | New Hampshire | 23.3% | 22.1% |
| 34 | Connecticut | 22.9% | 22.3% |
| 35 | Tennessee | 23.1% | 22.4% |
| 36 | Arizona | 23.3% | 22.6% |
| 37 | Louisiana | 23.1% | 23.2% |
| 38 | Missouri | 24.2% | 23.4% |
| 39 | North Carolina | 21.7% | 23.5% |
| 40 | U.S. Virgin Islands | 22.6% | 24.1% |
| 41 | New York | 26.6% | 24.2% |
| 42 | Georgia | 20.9% | 25.0% |
| 43 | Illinois | 25.8% | 25.2% |
| 44 | Massachusetts | 24.4% | 25.5% |
| 45 | Texas | 24.7% | 25.7% |
| 46 | Florida | 28.2% | 29.1% |
| 47 | New Jersey | 30.9% | 29.8% |
| 48 | Nevada | 28.2% | 30.6% |
| 49 | Puerto Rico | 27.7% | 31.4% |
| 50 | Colorado | 29.9% | 31.4% |
| 51 | Maryland | 36.6% | 32.4% |
| 52 | Delaware | 55.3% | No Knowledge |
Mississippi, Idaho, Alaska, Oregon, and Kansas all carried out constantly nicely in 2022 and 2023 for on-time flights. The highest states for on-time flights are principally states with much less air site visitors quantity and decrease populations total.
Unsurprisingly, lots of the states that rank worst for delays even have a significant airport that is among the most delayed within the nation. For instance: The Baltimore, MD; Denver, CO; and Las Vegas, NV airports are all among the many most delayed main airports. Consequently, Maryland, Colorado, and Nevada rank as a number of the most delayed states.
Delaware solely has one comparatively small regional airport (the Wilmington Airport), however delays in Delaware are far worse than in some other state, with over 55% of flights being delayed in 2022.
Sources and Methodology
All information for this report come from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) Reporting Provider On-Time Efficiency Database, which incorporates information from 1987 as much as the current. This database consists of information organized by origin and vacation spot airport, date, and airline. The reported information consists of scheduled and precise departure and arrival occasions, canceled and diverted flights, taxi-out and taxi-in occasions, causes of delay and cancellation, air time, and continuous distance.
I accessed this information utilizing the BTS on-line information tables on October 18, 2023.
Knowledge Classes and Variables
For this report I queried the BTS information tables based mostly on the next classes for filtering and sorting:
- Reporting_Airline: a singular provider code indicating every airline
- OriginAirportID: an identification quantity assigned by US DOT to determine a singular airport—for the origin
- DestAirportID: an identification quantity assigned by US DOT to determine a singular airport—for the vacation spot
- OriginState: the identify and state code of the origin state or US territory
Inside every filtering class, I accessed the next variables for evaluation.
- PctDepOntime: a share of exits leaving inside quarter-hour of the scheduled time
- DepDelay15: an indicator of delayed departure the place over quarter-hour late is taken into account delayed—1 for delayed and 0 for not delayed
- DepDelayMinutes: distinction in minutes between scheduled and precise departure time—early departures set to 0
- Flights: variety of flights inside a class
- Canceled: variety of canceled flights inside a class
- Cancellation Code: a quantity indicating the reason for delay
Evaluation
After I pulled the info from the BTS tables, I carried out all evaluation, group, and calculations to find out the ultimate outcomes.
The next values have been calculated based mostly on the out there information in every class:
- Proportion of flights that have been delayed
- Proportion of flights that have been canceled
- Mixed share of maximum climate delays and NAS climate delays
- Particular person total share of delays from particular person NAS causes
For delay causes, I mixed “excessive climate delays” and NAS-related climate delays beneath one class to offer an correct illustration of all weather-related delays.
I organized and sorted the calculated outcomes to seek out probably the most and least delayed airways, airports, and states. For the reason that outlying outcomes for airports have been small regional airports, I additionally filtered to seek out probably the most and least delayed main worldwide airports.
Last Airline Delay Findings
It’s clear that delayed flights are an issue that isn’t going away quickly. Practically 1 / 4 of flights within the US depart at the least quarter-hour late, and there isn’t proof of that fee reducing.
Whereas it’s simple to say that flight delays are precipitated primarily by climate or air site visitors, the reality is that airways themselves bear the brunt of the accountability for delays. Some airways do carry out higher than others, and finances airways are probably the most typically delayed.
Peer reviewed by Dr. Marcus Inexperienced, Ph.D. on November twenty second, 2023.
Airline Delay Statistics FAQs
What share of flights get delayed?
24.56% of flights have been delayed in 2023 (up via July)
What’s the greatest reason behind flight delays?
The largest root reason behind delayed flights is an issue throughout the airline’s operation.
What’s the common delay time for flights?
The typical delay time for flights in 2023 was 71.4 minutes.
Which airline has the worst flight delays?
Frontier is the airline with probably the most delays and the longest delays on common.
Which airline has probably the most cancellations?
Republic Airline has the best flight cancellation fee, with 3.31% of flights canceled in 2023.
