Labor Day Travel: These Airports Could Potentially Be the Worst

Image: Planes waiting to take off at an airport. (photo via iStock Getty Images/E+/Grafissimo) (Grafissimo / E+)
Image: Planes waiting to take off at an airport. (photo via iStock Getty Images/E+/Grafissimo) (Grafissimo / E+)
Rich Thomaselli
by Rich Thomaselli
Last updated: 11:18 AM ET, Wed August 24, 2022

After a disastrous spring and summer of long lines, chaotic airport scenes, lost luggage, and delays and cancellations, the last big air travel period before the winter holidays is almost here.

Labor Day 2022 is next weekend and everybody from airlines to airports to fliers to travel advisors are bracing for a big push from consumers who have returned in droves after two years of being hampered by the pandemic.

But while many college students are already back and many states around the country have already started school, Labor Day nonetheless has the potential for huge numbers.

And huge problems, given what we've already seen.

Airlines have tried everything, including their own preemptive strikes by canceling flights and eliminating routes but the issues appear to be with us and could be for a while.

That's why the travel website Hopper, via an article in Forbes, has identified the worst 10 airports to fly through for Labor Day Weekend.

They include, in order:

Midway in Chicago

BWI in Baltimore

Love Field in Dallas

Newark-International in Newark, N.J.

Harry Reid in Las Vegas

John F. Kennedy in New York City

Lambert Field in St. Louis

Reagan National in Washington D.C.

Orlando

LaGuardia in New York City

The numbers just don't bode well for Labor Day. Hopper noted that through the first three weeks of August, almost half - 47 percent - of all flights out of Midway have been delayed. That's why Chicago's No. 2 airport earned the ignominious No. 1 ranking on Hopper's list.

BWI has seen 43 percent of its August flights delayed and Love Field passengers have been delayed 37 percent of the time so far this month.


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Rich Thomaselli

Rich Thomaselli

Associate Writer

Editor Associate Writer true 9281 14744 Rich Thomaselli has written for TravelPulse since 2014 and has been a professional journalist for nearly 40 years. His work has appeared in USA Today, the New York Times and New York Yankees publications. He is an 11-time writ

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