The 10 Most Delay-Prone Airports in the U.S.

Ever wonder how much of your life you’ve wasted sitting around at the airport? Financebuzz.com compiled a list of the worst delay-prone U.S. airports of 2018, with overall delay times displayed in the collective amount of years they’ve added up to for travelers overall. And the results are not encouraging: Rankings are based on a composite of total passengers, percentage of flights delayed, and the average length of delay for the top 25 airports.

Some takeaways: The measures of total passenger-time wasted in delays last year amounted to some staggering numbers: 1,133 years at Chicago O’Hare, 991 years at Atlanta, and more than 500 years at the others.

Years Travelers Spent Waiting at Delay-Prone Airports Last Year

The results are similar to AirHelp’s 2019 ranking of the worst airports for flight delays. The most delay-prone airports are also the nation’s busiest hub airports, which should come as no surprise. The top five and eight of the top 10 are a major hub for at least one airline, with non-hub Los Angeles and Las Vegas also making the top 10 of AirHelp’s study.

Among the key hub airports, Chicago O’Hare suffered the highest percentage of delayed flights, at 33 percent; no other delay-prone airport cracked the 30 percent level. Among the airports where travelers were less likely to face a delayed flight, in the range of 16 to 19 percent, were Atlanta, Detroit, Houston/Bush, Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St Paul, and Seattle-Tacoma. Travelers making hub connections faced fewer delays at Minneapolis-St Paul, Detroit, Chicago/Midway, and Miami than at the airports at the top of the list. You can see the full rankings and top 25 most delay-prone airports here.

Another astounding finding: Average delays at the 25 airports were all more than 50 minutes, with 11 at 70 minutes or more. As I’ve often said, airport statistics like these are useful if you have a choice of hub airports or a choice among multiple airports in a metro area. When you can avoid these airports, you should make it happen.

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Consumer advocate Ed Perkins has been writing about travel for more than three decades. The founding editor of the Consumer Reports Travel Letter, he continues to inform travelers and fight consumer abuse every day at SmarterTravel.