There are many things that drive travelers crazy but airport delays have to rank among the most frustrating. Forbes has put together their list of the 20 top time-draining airports based on categories such as late aircraft related delays, cancellations, weather related delays and the percentage of on-time arrivals and departures. Check out which airports you should avoid if possible and see how your local favorite stacks up. The list, inside…
20. Washington, D.C.: Washington National
19. Miami, Fla.: Miami International
18. Las Vegas, Nev.: McCarran International
17. Phoenix, Ariz.: Sky Harbor International
16. Washington, D.C.: Dulles International
15. Los Angeles, Calif.: Los Angeles International
14. Charlotte, N.C.: Charlotte Douglas International
13. Seattle, Wash.: Seattle/Tacoma International
12. Detroit, Mich.: Detroit Metro Wayne County
11. Denver, Colo.: Denver International
10. Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minn.: Minneapolis St. Paul International
9. Atlanta, Ga.: Hartsfield-Jackson
8. Philadelphia, Pa.: Philadelphia International
7. Boston, Mass.: Logan International
6. San Francisco, Calif.: San Francisco International
5. Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas: Dallas/Ft. Worth International
4. New York, N.Y.: La Guardia
3. New York, N.Y.: Kennedy International
2. Newark, N.J.: Newark Liberty International
1. Chicago, Ill.: O’Hare
Want more? Check out Forbes Top 100 Time-Draining Airports.
America’s Most Time-Draining Airports [Forbes]
(Photo: Getty)
More From Consumerist
-
Don’t Blame The Coughing Guy Next To You: Study Lists The Airports Most Likely To Spread Germs
-
Best Of Comments: Confusion, Chaos, Comcast
-
Worst Charities In America Give Charities A Bad Name
-
All Major U.S. Airlines Waiving Change Fees For Boston Travelers After Bombings At Marathon
-
Greek Yogurt: Thick And Luxurious, Or Just Full Of Milk Powder?
@PeteyNice: I agree. Atlanta isn’t *that* bad, especially for the volume of flights they have going through there. It’s a bit worse if you have to go through security instead of just making a connection.
O’Hare is WAY worse than Atlanta. I think that the people who think Atlanta is worse must not have experience going through O’Hare in the winter or something.
re volume of flights, Oakland and Las Vegas are similarly hellacious busy, yet neither are in the top 20 – and SFO doesn’t have the excuse of bad weather, either.
@mythago:
SFO is often socked in with fog, delaying most morning flights in my experience. Oakland has been rated as one of the top airports in the country by Wired, and as a traveling consultant, I can generally attest to this. If anyone is flying anywhere near the Bay Area, choose Oakland, or even San Jose, depending upon your final destination.
Crap… I’m flying out of two of those airports next week for a business trip.
I’m also onboard for the Atlanta airport hate. The whole subway thing confused the hell out of me.
You know, I don’t really mind O’Hare.
Maybe I’m just used to it by now.
@MountainCop:
Speak for yourself! I love DIA.
Advice for those making connections (or flying out, after a vacation): in the summer, choose a morning flight if at all possible. Afternoon thunderstorms can play havoc with flight schedules.
@datacloud, you’d think by now they would have learned to take the fog into account, particularly as the airport isn’t even IN San Francisco (technically I believe it is in San Bruno). Haven’t flown out of SJO in a while, but OAK is much improved with the new terminal.
@Narockstar: Well, I live in Winnipeg, so I guess I’m used to the snow
– And I don’t know what you mean about wifi – last few times I’ve been through it, in different terminals, I’ve had wifi access. Not free naturally, but still had it.
I have never had any problems with DFW. The flights are usually on time and the airport is usually pretty quiet when I go. Security is pretty normal. Of course, I usually fly out of Dallas Love though as that is where Southwest is (cheap flights FTW!).
Denver is more of a problem for me. I’ve had delays there and that airport is crazy.
Cheers!
The thing with Atlanta is the lines may be long and the planes perpetually delayed, but that airport tram will get you where you need to go in no time flat. Why can’t I take that to Kansas City?
@mythago:
No, they continue to schedule flights into SFO every morning from San Luis Obispo (about four hours south), 80% of which get delayed. I now drive there unless I simply must fly for logistical reasons. Unfortunately, there are no offerings from SLO to OAK or SJO, but that may change with the new terminal here and runway extension.
@carblover: Thanks. I’ll try to remember that next time I’m in hell. I don’t usually check bags, so I guess that’s why I missed it. I’d be happier if it was a Caribou, but I guess you can’t have everything.
The way Miami handles its International Flights and security in general is a joke. That airport is the worst I’ve been to.
@sprocket79: What’s confusing about the ATL subway? It’s either Terminal, A, B, C, D or E terminals….all in a straight line. I’ll take ATL to DFW or ORD any day.
One of the better things about living in Baton Rouge is our teeny-tiny super-easy airport. Grand total of 8 gates….
Where’s Bush Int’l in Houston? Long-assed distances between flight connections and either no time at all to make them or loooooong waits in between. Unfortunately I love flying Continental and that’s their hub so – oh well.
Seattle International is just fine — provided you don’t fly Alaska Airlines. It’s they’re major hub and they can’t keep a schedule for ****. Aside from being stuck at DIA for three days during an October blizzard once my worst airport experience was Philadelphia. No excuses, US Airways just sucks.
In fact, in most cases it boils down to the airline, not the airport. And these days all the airlines suck.
D’oh. “…their major hub”.
@Datacloud: @Datacloud: So true about Oakland airport. I live in S.F. but it is also often about $100 cheaper to fly in and out of OAK rather than direct to or from San Fran. Transport back to SF is fairly easy too, if you don’t have a lot of bags.
Midway > O’Hare.
5. Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas: Dallas/Ft. Worth International
That was my local airport for a number of years. It’s not number 1? Delay-wise, it was pretty bad (and now getting worse) – naturally living there I had to wait through every delay – good luck getting somewhere on time. I still remember when there were few or no delays there – when I was a small child. I can only hope…
@SinisterMatt: Dallas Love and DFW are two different places. Love is a small airport, hence the lack of wait times. If you ever lived in Dallas or another SW Airlines city and saw the “Set Love Free” commericals proposing removal of the Wright Amendment (which didn’t happen yet… stupid American Airlines wants our money) you could see exactly to how many places you could go from Love – not many.
@Datacloud: I’m not surprised they don’t have many flights to SJO–SJC, on the other hand…
(SJO is San José, Costa Rica)
I had an 8 hour wait at Sea-Tac 2 years ago. Fortunately it was in the terminal. But I couldn’t leave the gate the whole time, because it was 8 hours of ANY MINUTE NOW! IIRC, Alaska Airlines.
I never have a problem at MSP, from either terminal. I do prefer Humphrey, though. I think the main reason that MSP is on this list is the seemingly 400 daily flights to Chicago, thus the domino effect. Of course, anytime you NEED a flight to Chicago, there’s never a convenient option.
I’m a bit surprised Newark-Liberty didn’t get the top spot. That airport has turned into a real mess the past few years. The big problem is that there are way more flights than the runways can handle, so if you’re taking a flight after, say, 9:30am, you have to wait in the plane an hour+ before you take off.
The companies have started to add that into the time of the flight, so it doesn’t really mess with connections (usually!), but… it’s nerve-wracking.
I’d take it over JFK, though.
I had a layover in MSP once. Fortunately, I had plenty of time for the connection as that place was fucking huge. I got off the plane in one terminal, walked across it to a tram, took that, got off, walked through what seemed like a giant shopping mall, finally arriving at the other terminal. Nice airport, but huge, and certainly not where you want to be when you’re on time constraints and don’t know your way around.
Just in my personal experience, I’d switch Dulles with O’Hare on that list. I’ve had few problems with O’Hare, and it’s not that difficult to navigate, just large; Dulles, however, is a gigantic, badly-designed pain in the ass, especially with those antiquated people-movers.