The 10 Worst Airports for Spring Travel

Springtime means a return to travel. Which means a return of flyers to the nation’s airports. Which means a spike in airport congestion, overcrowded flights, and flight delays.

Working around the predictable unpleasantness requires knowing where it will occur.

A just-released study, RewardExpert’s 2018 Spring Air Travel Forecast, attempts to precisely predict this spring’s airport pain points, down to the date and airport.

The worst dates to fly, by month, are:

• March – Thursday, March 1; Monday, March 12; Tuesday, March 13
• April – Tuesday, April 3; Saturday, April 7
• May – Saturday, May 19; Tuesday, May 22

Of course, even on the worst days, not all airports will perform equally poorly. Based on on-time performance during the three-month period over the past five years, these are the 10 airports expected to have the worst records:

• Newark Liberty Airport, NJ – Average on-time performance: 76.8%
• Houston Hobby, TX – Average on-time performance: 77.0%
• Dallas Love Field, TX – Average on-time performance: 77.6%
• San Francisco, CA – Average on-time performance: 77.8%
• New York LaGuardia, NY – Average on-time performance: 78.1%
• Chicago O’Hare, IL – Average on-time performance: 78.3%
• Chicago Midway, IL – Average on-time performance: 78.3%
• Ft. Lauderdale, FL – Average on-time performance: 78.5%
• New York JFK, NY – Average on-time performance: 79.0%
• Dallas/Ft. Worth, TX – Average on-time performance: 79.3%

So, spring into travel, but do so selectively.

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After 20 years working in the travel industry, and 15 years writing about it, Tim Winship knows a thing or two about travel. Follow him on Twitter @twinship.