(NEXSTAR) – Depending on what airport your friends or relatives are flying out of, you may want to show a little extra compassion this Thanksgiving.
A new study by travel site Kayak ranked the nation’s top 50 airports – those with the highest search volumes – by the percentage of flight delays last year on both Thanksgiving and Christmas.
While many large, bustling airports landed among the least on-time – think New York’s JFK, or Chicago’s ORD – the data showed that the size of the airport wasn’t always a reliable indicator of delays. The worst in the country was relatively tiny FLL in Fort Lauderdale, where 34% of Thanksgiving flights (and 39% on Christmas!) were delayed.
SFO was also among the ten worst, with 24% of flights delayed on Thanksgiving, but travelers who flew out of San Jose likely had a far smoother experience. SJC ranked fifth for the most on-time airports with only 12% of flights delayed last Thanksgiving.
| Rank | Airport | City | Thanksgiving delays | Christmas delays |
| 41 | BWI | Baltimore, Maryland | 24% | 35% |
| 42 | DFW | Dallas, Texas | 24% | 24% |
| 43 | SFO | San Francisco, California | 24% | 34% |
| 44 | CLT | Charlotte, North Carolina | 25% | 28% |
| 45 | MCO | Orlando, Florida | 26% | 29% |
| 46 | ORD | Chicago, Illinois | 26% | 30% |
| 47 | MIA | Miami, Florida | 26% | 39% |
| 48 | DEN | Denver, Colorado | 28% | 24% |
| 49 | JFK | New York, New York | 29% | 35% |
| 50 | FLL | Fort Lauderdale, Florida | 34% | 39% |
The study, which used data from Aviation Edge, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics and Kayak’s internal data, found that airports on the West Coast generally appeared to be more on time than the East Coast, with Honolulu (HNL); Portland, Oregon (PDX); San Jose (SJC); and Sacramento (SMF) all among the top 10 least-delayed.
| Rank | Airport | City | Thanksgiving delays | Christmas delays |
| 1 | HNL | Honolulu, Hawaii | 11% | 17% |
| 2 | PDX | Portland, Oregon | 12% | 14% |
| 3 | IND | Indianapolis, Indiana | 12% | 17% |
| 4 | SAT | San Antonio, Texas | 12% | 14% |
| 5 | SJC | San Jose, California | 12% | 12% |
| 6 | SMF | Sacramento, California | 12% | 12% |
| 7 | CVG | Cincinnati, Ohio | 13% | 14% |
| 8 | SLC | Salt Lake City, Utah | 13% | 23% |
| 9 | CMH | Columbus, Ohio | 13% | 16% |
| 10 | PIT | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania | 13% | 20% |
See the full ranking on the Kayak website.
The Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) is already bracing for a Thanksgiving travel rush that is expected to break records. The TSA is preparing to screen roughly 2.9 million people on Wednesday and over 3 million on Sunday.
“These will likely be some of the busiest travel days in U.S. history,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Monday.
As for dodging flight delays, Kayak’s study revealed a clear pattern – the earlier the better.
On Thanksgiving last year, delays affected just 10% of flights departing at 5 a.m., a number that nearly doubled by 10 a.m.
Overall, however, delays are down in recent years. Kayak found that Thanksgiving cancellations in 2023 dropped by a whopping 28% compared with 2022 – a trend that will hopefully continue in 2024.
