Kelly Dearmore
Audio By Carbonatix
Planning to travel this holiday season? You may want to consider driving. Dallas Love Field is the 11th-worst airport for holiday travel in the country, according to a report from LocalInsider.com.
The study used flight departure data from the 50 largest airports over heavy travel periods from November 2023 to January 2024. Last Thanksgiving there were 457 flights affected from Nov. 17 to Nov. 28. Christmas travel received a heavier impact, with 1,025 flights delayed or canceled. A grand total of 1,482 flights and countless angry travelers were hit by delays and cancellations in 2023. For those flying out of Love there is almost a one in four chance, or 21.3% for you statisticians, of flight delays or cancellation.
A similarity among the most delayed airports is their status as secondary airports. A majority of the top 10 do not fly internationally. Dallas Love Field almost exclusively offers Southwest Airlines flights, and their nearby headquarters can easily be seen as passengers ascend into the Dallas skies.
“They typically offer a limited number of airlines or low cost carriers,” said Collin Czarnecki, a spokesperson for LocalInsider.com. “Primarily throughout the year they offer lower costs for travelers but they can get particularly busy during the holidays.” At Dallas Love Field, 40% of flights were delayed or cancelled in 2022.
The good news is that trends show a decline in overall flight delays and cancellations over the years. Surprisingly, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport ranks low on the list, a shock to anyone who has flown out of the five-terminal labyrinth. Evidently, what it lacks in ease of navigation, it makes up for in departure reliability. In 2022, 28% of flights were delayed or canceled during the holiday season at DFW International. In 2023, the number dropped to 15.7%.
“There was a real return to normalcy for travel after the pandemic,” said Czarnecki. “It’s a slight improvement. That’s actually a similar story across the board for most airports across the country.” Florida hosts four of the airports with the most delays. If you must fly and you’re willing to drive a little south, flights out of George Bush Intercontinental Houston have an 85.5% on-time rate, ranking third on the list of most reliable airports.
Flights can be impacted by overbooking, crowded terminals, icy runways, or, if you’re in Dallas, the occasional stray bullet. On Nov. 15, after a bullet struck a plane just prior to takeoff at Dallas Love Field, a flight to Indianapolis was delayed by two hours. No one was harmed in the shooting. No further information on the incident has been released.
