Newark Liberty Airport image courtesy of Thinkstock
Forget winter.
MileCards.com today released its report ranking the top 10 best and worst airports for summer delays, and more than a third of the 50 airports surveyed had worse delays in the summer than in the winter, according to Brian Karimzad, Director of MileCards.com.
Karimzad aggregated and analyzed Department of Transportation on-time data for the past 10 summers (2005-2014) to come up with the rankings.
Here are his findings, with the percentage of summer on-time arrivals.
WORST
1. Newark - Liberty 64.5
2. New York - La Guardia 66.0
3. New York - Kennedy 67.5
4. San Francisco 68.9
5. Boston 70.7
6. San Juan 71.5
7. Philadelphia 71.6
8. Chicago O'Hare 71.9
9. Miami 72.7
10. Raleigh - Durham 73.0
BEST
1. Honolulu 87.7
2. Salt Lake City 84.9
3. Phoenix 81.5
4. Orange County 81.4
5. San Jose 80.7
6. Portland 79.9
7. Oakland 79.6
8. Las Vegas 79.1
9. Minneapolis 78.9
10. Chicago - Midway 78.7
Some 38 percent of the top 50 airports have more summer than winter delays. Airports from both the North and South have more frequent summer than winter delays, including Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Orlando, and all three D.C. area airports.
June is the worst month for summer delays. Sixty-six percent of the 50 busiest airports have more frequent delays in June than July or August.
Minneapolis and Chicago-Midway are best in the Midwest. If you must connect in a Midwest city, Delta's Minneapolis and Southwest's Chicago-Midway hubs are the least delay-prone. Midway's 78.7 percent on time record beats Chicago O'Hare handily, where just 71.9 percent of flights were on time. Last summer, just 65.3 percent of O'Hare summer flights were on time.
Among reliable hubs for the big three, United Airline's hub in Denver is tops with a 78.3 percent on time arrival rate and Dallas-Fort Worth is the least delay-prone of the American Airlines hubs during the summer with 76.5 percent of flights on time, though it will absorb a more reliable Phoenix hub from US Airways. Among Delta Air Lines hubs, Salt Lake City is tops.
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