Airline passengers headed to New York City were more likely to arrive late than fliers headed to any other city in the USA, according to the year-end figures released by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS).
All three New York-area airports — JFK, LaGuardia and Newark — had the worst on-time arrival rates of the 33 largest U.S. airports included in the government's rankings.
Newark saw the lowest percentage of on-time arrivals in 2005, with just 64.1% of flights landing within 15 minutes of their scheduled time for the year. Put another way, that means nearly four of every 10 flights landing at Newark were late.
It was the second poor year in a row for Newark, which ranked 32nd of out 33 airports in 2004. Last year, 71.8% of flights arriving at Newark were on time.
But New York's two other metro-area airports saw a bad year for arrivals as well in 2005. Just 66.75% of the fights headed to LaGuardia landed on time, while only 70.3% of flights landed on time at JFK. JFK ranked No. 31 and LaGuardia was No. 32 in the on-time performance for the 33 biggest airports.
The two worst airports outside of New York for on-time arrivals were Fort Lauderdale (71.1% in 2005) and Philadelphia (71.9%).
Atlanta, the world's busiest airport, finished a shade ahead of Philadelphia in the rankings, with 71.9% of its flights arriving on time. Overall, Atlanta ranked No. 28 out of the 33 airports examined.
| 1. |
Salt Lake City (SLC)
|
83.46%
|
3
|
| 2. |
Cincinnati (CVG)
|
82.65%
|
16
|
| 3. |
Denver (DEN)
|
82.45%
|
1
|
| 4. |
Chicago Midway (MDW)
|
82.34%
|
18
|
| 5. |
Houston Bush (IAH)
|
81.50%
|
8
|
| 6. |
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW)
|
81.30%
|
7
|
| 7. |
Phoenix (PHX)
|
81.08%
|
15
|
| 8. |
St. Louis (STL)
|
80.57%
|
12
|
| 9. |
Baltimore (BWI)
|
80.21%
|
9
|
| 10. |
Los Angeles (LAX)
|
80.12%
|
4
|
| 11. |
Charlotte (CLT)
|
79.85%
|
2
|
| 12. |
Oakland (OAK)
|
79.52%
|
6
|
| 13. |
San Diego (SAN)
|
79.17%
|
14
|
| 14. |
Wash. Dulles (IAD)
|
79.05%
|
20
|
| 15. |
Wash. National (DCA)
|
78.68%
|
10
|
| 16. |
Pittsburgh (PIT)
|
78.54%
|
11
|
| 17. |
Minn./St. Paul (MSP)
|
78.20%
|
13
|
| 18. |
Detroit (DTW)
|
78.06%
|
5
|
| 19. |
Las Vegas (LAS)
|
77.83%
|
25
|
| 20. |
Portland, Ore. (PDX)
|
77.64%
|
17
|
At the other end of the spectrum, passengers were most likely to land on schedule if they were flying to Salt Lake City and Cincinnati.
Those airports - both hubs for Delta Air Lines - finished first and second on for on-time arrivals. Salt Lake City saw 83.5% of its flights on time while flights bound for Cincinnati landed on schedule 82.7% of the time.
Denver was the 2004 leader for on-time flights, but slipped to third in the rankings in 2005 with 82.5% on-time performance.
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