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AUSTIN (KXAN) — One out of every five flights in the U.S. was delayed in 2024, according to federal data.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) publishes delay and cancellation data for airports across the country. BTS uses arriving flights when reporting delayed and canceled flights. A flight is considered delayed if it arrives at the gate 15 or more minutes after the scheduled arrival time.
Nationwide, more than 7.5 million flights were scheduled on U.S.-based airlines last year. Of those, about 5.9 million were on time, accounting for 78.1% of all flights.
Looking for older data? Click here to see flight delays in 2023 or here for data from 2022.
Airports with most delays and cancellations
According to the BTS data, 1,531,080 flights were delayed nationwide in 2024, about 20.3% of all scheduled domestic flights in the country. Meanwhile, 102,908 flights were canceled, about 1.4% of the total. That’s more than the 88,000 cancelations in 2023, but fewer than 2022 which saw more than 181,000 cancellations.
Florida is particularly prone to delays, with five of the top 10 airports with most delayed arrivals. San Francisco was the worst offender among larger airports, with almost 30% of flights arriving at least 15 minutes late in 2023.
Among airports with at least 5,000 scheduled flights, Kahului, Hawaii, had the fewest delays last year, at 12.2%.
Aspen, Colorado, ranked third with most delays, with about 26% of flights arriving late. The airport also had the highest proportion of canceled arrivals among larger airports, with about 4.3% of scheduled flights canceled.
Sarasota, Florida, and Bangor, Maine, also had at least 3% of flights canceled in 2024.
Use our interactive database below to see the statistics for a specific airport. You can search for a specific airport or city using the search feature in the top left. Airports are listed in order of the number of scheduled domestic flights.
Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International is the busiest airport in the country, with more than 340,000 domestic arrivals in 2024. About 81.6% of those arrived on time. Chicago’s O’Hare, Dallas/Fort Worth, Denver and Charlotte rounded out the top five busiest airports nationwide in terms of the number of domestic flights.