Best and Worst Airport On-Time Percentages in January

How about a little pop quiz? Of the largest US airports, name the five best and five worst for January on-time performance? Just as a note, this looks at what percentage of flights arrived within 14 minutes of schedule for those carriers that report to the DOT.

Don’t look below until you’ve had a chance to think about this one.

I said think about it first. Sheesh.

Ok, here it is.

Best On-Time Performance for January 2009

1. Houston/Intercontinental - 85.8 percent
2. Phoenix/Sky Harbor - 83.5 percent
3. Los Angeles - 82.8 percent
4. San Diego - 81.9 percent
5. Las Vegas - 81.8 percent

Not much of a surprise for any of these I suppose. They’re all in areas where the weather was good in January. Now for the bad list. Think you know how this one is going to go as well? There is one surprise.

Worst On-Time Performance for January 2009

1. Newark/Liberty - 61.8 percent
2. New York/LaGuardia - 67.4 percent
3. Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky - 70.4 percent
4. Chicago/O’Hare - 71.0 percent
5. Seattle/Tacoma - 71.5 percent

Look at Cincinnati, the only real surprise on this list. What the heck happened there? Comair happened. The Delta Connection carrier only saw 64.1 percent of its flights arrive on time. Comair finished dead last among all airlines with an awful 56.7 percent rate systemwide. Yikes.