Springtime means a return to travel. Which means a return of flyers to the nation’s airports. Which means a spike in airport congestion, overcrowded flights, and flight delays.
Working around the predictable unpleasantness requires knowing when and where it will occur.
A just-released study by RewardExpert, the 2018 Spring Air Travel Forecast, attempts to precisely predict this spring’s airport pain points, by date and by airport.
Related:
First, the worst dates to fly, by month:
- March – Thursday, March 1; Monday, March 12; Tuesday, March 13
- April – Tuesday, April 3; Saturday, April 7
- May – Saturday, May 19; Tuesday, May 22
Of course, even on the worst days, not all airports will perform equally poorly.
Based on on-time performance during the three-month period over the past five years, these are the 10 airports expected to have the worst records:
- Liberty Airport, NJ – Average on-time performance: 76.8%
- Hobby, TX – Average on-time performance: 77.0%
- Love Field, TX – Average on-time performance: 77.6%
- San Francisco, CA – Average on-time performance: 77.8%
- LaGuardia, NY – Average on-time performance: 78.1%
- O’Hare, CHI – Average on-time performance: 78.3%
- Midway, CHI – Average on-time performance: 78.3%
- Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Average on-time performance: 78.5%
- JFK, NY – Average on-time performance: 79.0%
- Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX – Average on-time performance: 79.3%
So spring into travel, but do so selectively.
After 20 years working in the travel industry, and almost that long writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.
This article first appeared on SmarterTravel.com, where Tim is Editor-at-Large.
