In 2024, roughly 1 billion passengers departed from U.S. airports. Almost 1 / 4 of these vacationers, about 236 million, skilled a flight delay or cancellation, in keeping with a current report from AirHelp, an air passenger rights firm.
Whereas one-in-four odds of experiencing a flight disruption could sound daunting, AirHelp’s deep dive into the info, which is showcased in its 2024 Disruption Report, provides useful takeaways for vacationers, together with essentially the most problematic months and the airports to keep away from. As a result of historical past can generally repeat itself, such intel is usually a useful useful resource for vacationers planning flights in 2025 and past.
“You need to use this data to your benefit, notably when selecting the place to fly out of or—in case you should—take a layover,” says Sally French, journey knowledgeable for private finance firm NerdWallet.
Right here’s what else AirHelp’s current report turned up, plus how vacationers can profit from the findings to keep away from delays and journey disruptions sooner or later.
U.S. airports with essentially the most flight disruptions in 2024
A regional hub, Aspen Airport, topped the record of 11 airports in AirHelp’s U.S. findings, which solely embody amenities that serve greater than 100,000 passengers yearly. In 2024, 36 % of Aspen’s roughly 420,000 passengers had been disrupted. Rutland-Southern Vermont Regional Airport got here in second (33 %), adopted by Vero Seaside, Florida (32 %).
4 main metropolitan hubs additionally made the record: Dallas Fort Value, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, and Charlotte. Of these, Dallas Fort Value had the very best proportion of disruptions and ranked in fifth place general, with 31 % of passengers disrupted.
French factors out that selecting a bigger airport might be useful in avoiding—or minimizing—disruptions as a result of smaller hubs have restricted alternate routes in case of delays equivalent to climate.
“Generally selecting bigger airports is best,” French says, noting Aspen’s poor report. “For some vacationers, it’d make extra sense to drive to Denver. Not solely does that airport have extra dependable service, but it surely additionally has so many extra routes offering extra choices.”
Months with essentially the most flight disruptions in 2024
The nice and cozy-weather months of July and Could skilled essentially the most disruptions in 2024, with 33 % and 29 %, respectively, of U.S. air journey passengers disrupted. January got here in third, with 28 % of passengers disrupted.
Nevertheless, be aware that the CrowdStrike cyber outage, which triggered 1000’s of delays and cancellations over a number of days in July 2024, performed a key position in these numbers. The outage coincided with the height of flight site visitors for the yr. Of the 96.6 million passengers who flew from a U.S. airport in July, 31.6 % had been affected by the Crowdstrike chaos and 64 % of passengers on July 19, when the outage began, in keeping with AirHelp information.
Minimizing disruptions and receiving compensation
AirHelp’s report additionally reminds passengers that if their flights are disrupted, they could be entitled to compensation. The group says this was the case for roughly 38 million vacationers globally, together with 780,000 within the USA, in 2024.
In accordance with Mike Arnot, spokesperson for Cirium, a number one aviation analytics firm that additionally compiles annual rankings for the world’s most on-time airports and airways, passengers ought to “perceive the position that varied airways play out there” and the way that impacts their possibilities of flight disruptions.
Arnot notes that finances carriers could have restricted assets due to their enterprise fashions as point-to-point carriers. It’s a completely different mannequin than that of bigger carriers, which incorporate connecting flights into what’s referred to as the hub-and-spoke mannequin.
“In case you miss your connecting flight, the bigger so-called community carriers might need extra choices for you,” Arnot explains. “They will put you on a distinct airline the place they’ve a relationship, for instance. To some extent, in case you guide a flight with an ultra-low value service, in case you’re late arriving, that’s the consequence.”
Whereas passenger protections have historically been sturdy in Europe due to a regulation referred to as EU 261, which went into impact in 2004, the idea has solely not too long ago gained traction in the USA. Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg spearheaded the initiative to implement new Division of Transportation laws requiring airways to supply computerized refunds to affected passengers, which went into impact in October 2024. No phrase but on whether or not these guidelines will stay in place underneath the brand new administration.