The Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the busiest travel times all year, rivaling the Christmas rush. Many people take to the skies to reunite with far-flung family and friends for the long weekend. However, heavy passenger volume coinciding with early winter weather across much of the U.S. frequently leads to travel headaches. Crowds slow things down at airport access roads, TSA lines, and boarding gates. Flight delays become commonplace as a result.
While air travel delays can be frustrating, most experienced travelers plan for them by allotting extra travel time and bringing entertainment to stay occupied. However, flight cancellations present a far greater issue. Airlines occasionally have no choice but to ax scheduled flights because of several factors like security threats, equipment shortages stemming from weather delays or mechanical problems elsewhere, or inadequate staffing levels due to sickness, fatigue, or other unexpected circumstances. When entire flights are nixed by the carriers, it severely disrupts passenger itineraries and forces rebooking on later flights which are likely already full around the holidays.
While most of us don’t have much choice when it comes to airports, it might be useful to know which ones tend to see the most flight cancellations. To determine the 10 U.S. airports that have repeatedly had the highest Percentage of flights canceled, Jan.-June, 2023 so far this year – a good if not unerring predictor of those that will be most problematic over Thanksgiving – 24/7 Tempo consulted a study compiled by insuremytrip, a travel insurance comparison site.
The site analyzed the latest flight cancellation data for the first half of 2023 gathered by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. The rankings cover the country’s 75 busiest airports based on flight arrivals.
the top four airports for flight cancellations are all located in the bustling and weather-prone Northeast region – three in the New York City area and Buffalo’s airport. The dubious distinction of the highest cancellation percentage in 2022 belonged to Newark Liberty International in New Jersey, which axed 3.78% of its scheduled flights. Buffalo was actually worse the previous year, scrapping 5.5% of flights, but relinquished the #1 spot on the cancellation rankings. (For customer satisfaction and other factors, these are America’s 26 worst airports.)
10. Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport
> Location: Milwaukee, Wi
> Airport code: MKE
> Percentage of flights canceled, Jan.-June, 2023: 2.27%
9. Dallas Fort Worth International Airport
> Location: Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
> Airport code: DFW
> Percentage of flights canceled, Jan.-June, 2023: 2.29%
8. Boston Logan International Airport
> Location: Boston, MA
> Airport code: BOS
> Percentage of flights canceled, Jan.-June, 2023: 2.31%
7. Dallas Love Field
> Location: Dallas, TX
> Airport code: DAL
> Percentage of flights canceled, Jan.-June, 2023: 2.38%
6. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport
> Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL
> Airport code: FLL
> Percentage of flights canceled, Jan.-June, 2023: 2.47%
5. Norfolk International Airport
> Location: Norfolk, VA
> Airport code: ORF
> Percentage of flights canceled, Jan.-June, 2023: 2.51%
4. Buffalo Niagara International Airport
> Location: Buffalo, NY
> Airport code: BUF
> Percentage of flights canceled, Jan.-June, 2023: 2.52%
3. John F. Kennedy International Airport
> Location: New York, NY
> Airport code: JFK
> Percentage of flights canceled, Jan.-June, 2023: 2.91%
2. LaGuardia Airport
> Location: New York, NY
> Airport code: LGA
> Percentage of flights canceled, Jan.-June, 2023: 3.32%
1. Newark Liberty International Airport
> Location: Newark, NJ
> Airport code: EWR
> Percentage of flights canceled, Jan.-June, 2023: 3.78%