Gulliver | Flight delays

The worst American airports for winter flying

How to avoid flight delays while flying in America during the winter

By N.B. | Washington, DC

WINTER weather wreaks all sorts of havoc on business travellers. But perhaps the worst consequence of snowshowers, hailstorms and outright blizzards are the flight delays. The best way to avoid these is to steer clear of airports that are especially prone to winter problems. Sometimes, of course, you have to use a particular airport because it's your destination. But if you're picking between a handful of airports to transfer through, the travel website Hopper has you covered.

Hopper combined its own flight popularity data with 2013 Bureau of Transportation Statistics to show which American airports are likely to be worst for winter travel delays this year. (I'd have preferred if Hopper's analysts looked at a ten-year average, but we'll work with the data we have.) Here are the main takeaways:

  • Avoid O’Hare in Chicago: 42% of flights there are delayed during the winter
  • Chicago, Newark, Denver and Fort Lauderdale have more than a third of flights delayed during winter months
  • Airports in warm areas like Florida can be affected by winter storm delays in other places, due to their popularity during the chilly season
  • If you are flying out of New York, you are less likely to be delayed if you use JFK or LaGuardia rather than Newark
  • Hawaii is your best bet for uneventful winter travel.

The first and last items on this list are obvious. But Hopper's tips about avoiding Newark and Florida are useful and counterintuitive. And there are some other surprising data points on the list. Despite both being in wintry regions, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Detroit international airports manage to get three-quarters of their flights out on time during the hiemal months. That's better than Tampa and Dallas-Fort Worth, where nearly a third of flights are delayed. International business travellers who are unfamiliar with American weather would do well to check Hopper's data before booking multiple-leg flights over the coming months.

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