Many people look forward to traveling during the summer, but that means they also have to endure seemingly endless delays and long waits at airports. In a recent analysis of travel data, MileCards discovered which airports you should avoid during the summer and which airports you should go to instead. in conclusion? If you want to travel but don't want to eliminate the hustle and bustle of summer, be careful when traveling in June and stay away from Newark.
MileCards, a website that allows users to compare travel cards, looked at U.S. Department of Transportation data from 2010 to the present covering the 50 busiest U.S. airports. The website looked at three main travel criteria for each airport: the percentage of on-time arrivals, how long people had to wait for takeoff after boarding and how long people had to wait between landing and getting off the plane.
The worst month to travel by air (if you want to be on time, anyway) is June. Between 2010 and 2015, only 75.4% of flights in June arrived on time. (In case you were wondering, the best time to avoid delays is September, with 83.9% of flights arriving on time during that period).
As far as individual airports are concerned, the worst summer flight on-time performance is in Newark and San Francisco. The summer flight on-time performance of these two airports is only 68.4%. It's bad news for New York overall when it comes to summer flights — Newark may be the airport with the most delays, but the city's other two airports, LaGuardia and JFK, rank among the least on-time airports. Third and fifth in dubious honors. "
In contrast, Honolulu and Salt Lake City airports experience relatively few delays, with summer flights on time more than 86 percent of the time. Check out MileCards’ infographic to see what’s happening at other major airports:
The study also found that New York's airports are among the worst for boarding and departure delays. JFK and LaGuardia occupied the top two spots with average wait times of 29.8 minutes and 28 minutes respectively. Newark wasn't far behind, ranking fourth with a wait time of 22.6 minutes (Philadelphia was third). In terms of landing, Los Angeles, Chicago O'Hare and Dallas-Fort Worth were the worst, with the average time between landing and actually arriving at the gate all exceeding 10 minutes.
one of the most tragic
MileCards uses these three numbers (percentage of on-time arrivals and average wait times for taxis and landings) to calculate each airport's "pain score." The airports with the highest pain scores are the ones where you're most likely to have your flight delayed, have to wait for takeoff when you actually board the plane, and have to wait to get off the plane when you finally land. Simply put, these are the places where you're most likely to feel complete and utter pain.
Newark received the highest pain score for summer travel (meaning it was the worst). It is followed by LaGuardia Airport, Chicago O'Hare Airport and JFK Airport. If you're looking for stress-free travel, head to San Jose or Portland, which earned the honor of being the "least painful" summer travel out of all 50 airports.
To see more research results, head to MileCards.
Image credit: Daniel Kist /Pexels; Jiffy. Infographic provided by MileCards.com.
