While traveling may be blissful for some this holiday season, many travelers will experience issues and delays as they try to get to and from their destinations.
According to OPSNET standard “delay by cause” reports, weather reportedly caused 75.48% of system-impacting delays that were greater than 15 minutes from June 2017 to May 2022.
Houston Airports says it will welcome its largest winter holiday travel crowd on record with a combined 3.9 million travelers at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) and William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) combined. That is a 6% increase from the same period in 2019 and a 16% increase from 2022. The winter holiday travel period for Houston Airports began last Thursday and ends Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024.
And while Houston is preparing for record travel, the Federal Aviation Administration says there are other airports to be aware of if you’re catching a flight for the holidays.
KPRC 2 did some research to determine what airports will give travelers the blues this winter season.
Airports with most weather-related delays
According to the FAA, the combined delay at two of the biggest airports in New York City (Newark and LaGuardia) is the highest in the country, with more than 66,000 significant delays of more than 15 minutes in 2019. The other top delay airports are in Chicago (nearly 29,000 delays in 2019), San Francisco (almost 26,000), Boston (nearly 15,000), and Seattle (nearly 11,000).
While these six airports with the worst weather-related delays experience many impacting weather events, the FAA noted that the weather alone does not necessarily lead to these issues.
“If an airport has much excess capacity, many delayed planes can be shifted to non-weather periods without overloading the system,” the FAA’s website said. “However, airports with the most weather delays also tend to operate close to capacity for large parts of the day.”
Types of weather that cause most delays
The type of weather causing air traffic delays can change over a year and depends on the country’s geographical area, FAA data suggests.
Overall, weather delays are reportedly most widespread in the summer, with the highest values in April, May, and June (ranging from about 7,100 to 7,800). Data shows that weather delays peaked in the summer (nearly 7,800) and total delays peaked at nearly 11,500 in October 2019.
Houston Airports says these are the single busiest air travel days reported in Houston:
- Friday, Dec. 15: More than 217,000 passengers expected
- Sunday, Dec. 17: More than 201,000 passengers expected
- Monday, Dec. 18: more than 200,000 passengers expected
For those who are considering traveling last minute, the best days to beat the crowds and book last-minute flights will be:
- Monday, Dec. 25 with 159,000 passengers expected
- Saturday, Dec. 30 with 154,000 passengers expected
You can check for flight delays for incoming flights by clicking here.