Traveling is great, and by “traveling” we don’t necessarily mean the hours spent in the car or on a plane, we mean arriving at a destination that we want to visit and spending time there. We love seeing new sights, tasting new food, and experiencing new adventures; however, we prefer if the adventures are at our destination, you know, the fun type of adventure, not the stranded in the airport type of adventure.
With 737 Max 8 jets being grounded recently, and WOW Airlines shutting down while customers were waiting at the airport to board their planes, the idea of showing up at the airport only to find out that our flight has not only been delayed but actually cancelled has crossed our minds alot recently.
In an effort to help travelers make smart decisions like which airport to fly out of, or in the case of a layover, which airport is the safest bet, InsureMyTrip has compiled data from flights in 2018 and put together a list of which U.S. airports are most likely to cancel your flight.
This list does not include every single airport in the country, but it does include the 75 busiest airports. In other words, these are the airports most people fly in, out of and through.
At the top of the list, in the number one spot on a list where you don’t want to be number one, is LaGuardia. If you live in the New York City area or if you plan to travel there, you might want to pick another airport if at all possible. LaGuardia canceled 4.07% of flights in 2018, and that wasn’t the first time this airport topped this list. In 2017, they were also the worst offender for flight cancellations.
At the bottom of the list on a list where you want to be on the bottom, was Salt Lake City International. This airport only cancelled .3% of flights in 2018.
For more about how other busy airports ranked, watch the video below.
If your local airport wasn’t mentioned in this video, cross your fingers that it’s not in the top 10. The 10 airports most likely to cancel your flight, with 1 being the worst are:
- LaGuardia
- Norfolk International
- Charleston AFB/International
- Greater Rochester International
- Philadelphia International
- Newark Liberty International
- Theodore Francis Green
- Ronald Reagan Washington National
- Richmond International
- Raleigh-Durham International
If your local airport isn’t on this list, congratulations. You can breathe a sigh of relief. If you’d like to see where your local airport ranked, you can view the full list of all 75 airports here.
If you travel often, sometimes it might be unavoidable to fly through an airport with a high rate of flight cancellations. If your flight gets canceled, your first step should be to contact the airline. It’s possible that you were automatically booked onto another flight. Even if that happens, it’s possible that there could be a long delay before your new flight leaves.
Airlines do not have to reimburse passengers for any expenses that come from a canceled flight. You might have to pay for a hotel room or buy a few extra meals on your own dime, but sometimes airlines will pay for these additional expenses.
Have you ever had a flight canceled? Which airport do you usually fly out of?