Which airports have the most delays in U.S.? Florida airport has the highest flight delay average

Lianna Norman, USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida
·4 min read
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Summer is one of the busiest seasons for travel, especially in Florida. And the last few months have been filled with waves of flight delays and cancellations across the country, due to both weather and IT complications for several major airlines.

American Airlines, Delta, United and Spirit all had more than 20 flight cancellations on Wednesday alone, with American Airlines topping the list at 69 cancellations, according to USA TODAY’s flight cancellations guide.

Essendex, a business text messaging platform, recently released a study that analyzed over 500 of the most common flight routes across the 25 largest airports in the U.S. to find the best and worst routes for flight delays nationwide.

And the Orlando Airport (MCO) showed up more than any other airport on the list of the flight routes with the most frequent delays.

Here’s which airlines and airports have the most canceled and delayed flights on average and this week.

How busy is MCO? Which airports have the most delays in U.S.?

“The Orlando International Airport has faced many issues in recent months due to storms canceling flights, on top of already busy conditions due to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios crowds coming in and out of the airport,” the study said.

“The data revealed planes arrived at their destinations on average four minutes late from Orlando, with 14 out of the top 100 most delayed flights arriving into or leaving Orlando.”

Interestingly, the most delayed flight route on the whole list was from Orlando International to Philadelphia International Airport, arriving an average of 35 minutes late. But the same flight path taken the other way, from Philadelphia to Orlando, typically arrives an average of 22 minutes early in Orlando.

"With over 100 domestic and 50 international destinations, Orlando welcomed more than 57.7 million passengers in 2023 as the busiest airport in the state of Florida,” the study said.

Here is the list of the top 10 airports with the most frequent departure delays, according to Essendex’s study:

  1. Orlando International Airport

  2. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport

  3. Miami International Airport

  4. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport

  5. John F. Kennedy International Airport

  6. George Bush Intercontinental Airport

  7. Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport

  8. Seattle–Tacoma International Airport

  9. San Diego International Airport

  10. Los Angeles International Airport

Which airline has the most delays?

Last weekend, thousands of Delta, United and Spirit Airlines flights were canceled or delayed, following a global tech outage.

That tipped the scale for which airlines currently have the most delayed and canceled flights. The Essendex study pre-dates this outage, and according to that data, JetBlue is the airline with the most flights that arrive late.

“JetBlue Airways stands out as the only U.S. carrier with flights arriving, on average, delayed. Despite the data finding a minimal average delay of one minute,” the study said.

“This coincides with JetBlue being crowned as the worst airline in the U.S. for the second consecutive year by the Wall Street Journal, due to extreme delays, frequent cancellations, and two-hour tarmac waits.”

Ironically, Delta was ranked as the airline with the most flights that arrive early or on-time in this study.

“Delta Air Lines frequently outperforms its scheduled arrival times across the board, with flights arriving, on average, 25 minutes ahead of schedule,” the study said.

Delta is now the airline with the most flight cancellations and the second-most flight delays this week (not on average, just for the week of July 22).

Which airports have the most cancellations and delays this week?

Although the study found that Orlando International sees the most delayed flights overall, it isn’t among airports experiencing the most delayed and canceled flights this week.

According to USA TODAY’s daily flight cancellations and delays guide, these are the airports with the most flight delays this week:

  1. Hartsfield-Jackson International

  2. Dallas-Fort Worth International

  3. Charlotte/Douglas International

  4. Denver International

  5. Chicago O'Hare International

  6. Houston Bush Intercontinental

  7. Harry Reid International

  8. Los Angeles International

  9. Seattle-Tacoma International

According to USA TODAY’s daily flight cancellations and delays guide, these are the airports with the most flight cancellations this week:

  1. Hartsfield-Jackson International

  2. Minneapolis/St Paul International

  3. Detroit Metro Wayne Co

  4. LaGuardia

  5. Charlotte/Douglas International

  6. Salt Lake City International

  7. Chicago O'Hare International

  8. Los Angeles International

  9. Newark Liberty International

  10. John F. Kennedy International

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Florida airport tops this list of U.S. airports with the most delays