The list of US airlines with the most flight delays during holiday season

The travel company Upgraded Points (UP) compiled data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics from the last ten years of delayed departures and arrivals during the winter holiday season across the 10 largest U.S. airlines.

Based on data from the last ten years, UP found that 31.9 percent of Frontier Airlines departures and 31. 8 percent of Southwest Airlines departures are delayed during the period from December 14 to January 5.

“When it comes to departures, Frontier Airlines and Southwest Airlines top the list as the 2 airlines most susceptible to holiday flight delay,” UP said in its report. “It’s worth noting that Southwest Airlines faced a considerable challenge last year with 16,700 flight cancellations, impacting the travel plans of 2 million passengers.”

Millions of people are expected to travel to airports in record numbers over the upcoming Thanksgiving break. Travel last year saw a return to pre-pandemic levels but also left thousands of travelers disgruntled and stranded during the holidays due to weather and staffing issues.

JetBlue trails behind Southwest with 30.8 percent of its departures over the past ten years. The two airlines least prone to holiday flight delays were Delta Air Lines and Hawaiian Airlines.

Delta has had 19.1 percent of its departures delayed, and Hawaiian Airlines has had the least amount of departures delayed, 15.6 percent, over the last decade.

Frontier and JetBlue are the airlines that are most susceptible to holiday flight delays for arrivals. Delta and Hawaiian are the two companies that, again, are the least prone to having delays impacting arrivals.

According to the data, the El Paso International Airport sees the most delayed departures and the Chicago Midway Airport has the most delayed arrivals.

The report found that the cause of most delays during last year’s holiday season were due to the air carriers, late-arriving planes and delays within the national aviation system.

“If you’re planning on traveling this holiday season, it might be wise to brace yourself for potential delays along the way,” UP said.