Which US airport has the best on-time performance?

Among the 22 major airports in DelayGuard's BTS table, Salt Lake City (SLC) has the lowest delay rate at 16.7% of 335,788 departing flights, January 2023 to December 2025. Minneapolis-Saint Paul (18.3%) and Los Angeles (18.4%) follow.

Which US airport has the worst on-time performance?

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood (FLL) has the highest delay rate at 27.3%, followed by Miami (MIA) at 27.0% and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) at 26.7%. LaGuardia (LGA) ranks 17th at 20.6% but has the highest cancellation rate at 2.67% (2024 to 2025).

How do I find which airports have better on-time performance for my route?

Open the airport pages linked from the airport delay rankings to see delay rates by hour, month and airline, then run your specific flight through the predictor for a flight-level estimate.

Does the airline matter more than the airport for on-time performance?

Both matter. At Atlanta, for example, Delta ran 20.0% of its departures late in this window against 37.6% for Frontier, flying from the same airport (BTS, January 2023 to December 2025). Check the airline pages as well as the airport pages.

Why do Florida airports top the delay ranking?

BTS records that flights at Fort Lauderdale, Miami and Orlando ran late most often among the 22 airports, with July the worst month at all three (34.6%, 36.7% and 38.1%) and 38.8% of Fort Lauderdale flights scheduled after 8 PM running late. BTS does not report weather as a cause at the airport level in this table, so treat explanations such as summer thunderstorms as context and not as a measured result.

US Airport On-Time Performance Ranked: Which Airports Delay the Most Flights? (2026)

Matt — Founder. Published September 9, 2026. Updated October 1, 2026. 7 min read.

Figures checked against DelayGuard BTS tables on 2026-10-01. Canonical page: US airport delay rankings.

Airport choice changes your delay odds, but the spread is smaller than many rankings suggest. Across the 22 largest airports DelayGuard tracks, the share of departing flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late ran from 16.7% at Salt Lake City to 27.3% at Fort Lauderdale, a gap of 10.6 percentage points. The network-wide figure is 21.2%.

This ranking uses the same table as the airport delay rankings page: BTS on-time performance data for flights departing each airport, January 2023 to December 2025. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after its scheduled arrival. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the delay rate. Cancellation rates cover 2024 to 2025.

Full Ranking: 22 Major US Airports by Delay Rate

Rank	Airport	Code	Delay rate	Flights in sample	Cancellation rate	Largest carrier in this window
1	Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood	FLL	27.3%	264,272	1.44%	Spirit Airlines 26.3% (ceased 2 May 2026)
2	Miami	MIA	27.0%	319,024	1.49%	American 54.3%
3	Dallas/Fort Worth	DFW	26.7%	893,078	2.31%	American 53.8%
4	Orlando	MCO	25.9%	476,054	1.43%	Southwest 27.8%
5	Charlotte	CLT	24.9%	598,576	1.53%	American 59.6%
6	Denver	DEN	24.7%	902,804	0.95%	United 33.1%
7	Chicago O'Hare	ORD	24.2%	850,994	1.56%	United 31.3%
8	Newark Liberty	EWR	23.4%	376,766	2.52%	United 54.0%
9	Houston Bush	IAH	23.3%	339,044	1.66%	United 60.5%
10	Philadelphia	PHL	23.2%	282,615	1.88%	American 45.7%
11	Las Vegas	LAS	23.2%	556,960	0.82%	Southwest 46.0%
12	John F. Kennedy	JFK	22.9%	352,760	1.93%	JetBlue 31.9%
13	Boston Logan	BOS	22.4%	418,699	1.56%	JetBlue 29.3%
14	Seattle-Tacoma	SEA	21.1%	486,931	0.96%	Alaska 47.0%
15	Atlanta	ATL	21.0%	979,661	1.21%	Delta 69.1%
16	San Francisco	SFO	20.8%	409,744	1.03%	United 37.8%
17	LaGuardia	LGA	20.6%	448,129	2.67%	Republic Airways 29.6%
18	Detroit	DTW	19.3%	374,952	1.07%	Delta 47.0%
19	Phoenix	PHX	19.2%	561,852	0.66%	Southwest 34.8%
20	Los Angeles	LAX	18.4%	572,741	0.75%	SkyWest 19.8%
21	Minneapolis-Saint Paul	MSP	18.3%	357,344	0.85%	Delta 56.1%
22	Salt Lake City	SLC	16.7%	335,788	0.57%	Delta 47.6%

Source: BTS On-Time Reporting, flights departing each airport, January 2023 to December 2025 (cancellations 2024 to 2025). Spirit Airlines is a historical entry: it ceased operations on 2 May 2026.

What the Ranking Shows

Florida and Texas lead the delay table. Fort Lauderdale (27.3%), Miami (27.0%), Dallas/Fort Worth (26.7%) and Orlando (25.9%) are the four highest.
The New York airports are not at the top. Newark ranks 8th at 23.4%, JFK 12th at 22.9% and LaGuardia 17th at 20.6%. Their weakness is cancellations instead: LaGuardia (2.67%) and Newark (2.52%) have the highest cancellation rates in the table, ahead of Dallas/Fort Worth (2.31%). See the JFK, LGA and EWR comparison.
Salt Lake City, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Los Angeles and Phoenix are the most reliable. All four are below 19.2%.
Delay and cancellation risk do not always move together. Denver delays 24.7% of flights but cancels only 0.95%.

BTS measures outcomes, not causes, so this table shows where flights ran late and not why. Two structural facts are documented by the FAA: JFK, LaGuardia and Reagan National are the three US airports it classes as Level 3 (slot-coordinated), and Newark, JFK and LaGuardia share the same approach control, the New York TRACON (N90).

Season and Time of Day

Summer is the worst month at most airports. July has the highest delay rate at 18 of the 22 airports. The exceptions are DFW in June (36.3%); DEN in June (33.8%); SEA in June (26.4%); SFO in March (24.2%). Autumn is the quietest: September, October or November is the best month at all 22 airports on the list.

Time of day matters at every airport. Flights scheduled before 8 AM ran late far less often than flights scheduled after 8 PM:

Airport	Scheduled before 8 AM	Scheduled after 8 PM
LGA	10.2%	27.8%
EWR	12.5%	34.5%
ORD	12.9%	33.1%
JFK	13.4%	31.8%
PHX	7.8%	23.5%
SLC	11.3%	16.7%

A before-8-AM departure from LaGuardia (10.2% late) ran late less often than an after-8-PM departure from Phoenix (23.5%). If your schedule allows, the earliest departure is usually the cheapest way to cut delay risk. See morning versus evening delays for the network-wide picture.

Check Your Own Flight

This ranking averages all airlines, routes and seasons. Your flight will differ with airline, departure time, month and current conditions. Use DelayGuard's predictor for a flight-specific estimate, and the cancellation rates page for cancellation history.

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