Ranking the Largest Airports
If you're flying this summer, bring a long book and a lot of patience. With a record number of passengers forecast to fly on U.S. airlines between June and August–nearly 210 million, according to the Air Transport Association–planes are likely to be more crowded than ever. Delays, which have been increasing across the system, may peak as well, as many airlines struggle to squeeze more customers onto fewer planes.
In 2007 so far, airplanes have been traveling about 74 percent full–near record "load factors"–with only 71 percent of flights arriving on time, the worst performance since the Department of Transportation began tracking such data in 1987. At some airports it's far worse. Only 58 percent of the flights at Chicago's O'Hare Airport depart on time. Flights leaving Las Vegas are more than 80 percent full. Charlotte, a relatively user-friendly airport, has surprisingly poor scores for both on-time flights and crowded planes.
With the help of the Boyd Group, an aviation consultancy, U.S. News crunched some government figures to develop an Airport Misery Index: a ranking that shows which airports have the best and worst combination of delayed flights and crowded planes. (View the methodology.) Here's how the nation's 47 largest airports fared:
Most Miserable Airports
This table ranks the 47 largest hub and nonhub airports according to a combination of on-time performance and average load factor. The airports with the highest Airport Misery Index have the worst combination of late and crowded flights.
On-time performance data are year to date through April 2007. Load factor data are year to date through February 2007.
| Airport | City/Name of airport | Pct. of flights on time | Percentage of flights delayed | Average load factor | Misery Index ranking (lower is better) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DTW | Detroit: Detroit Metro Wayne County | 61.1 | 39.0 | 76.9 | 47 |
| ORD | Chicago: O Hare | 57.7 | 42.3 | 75.8 | 46 |
| CLT | Charlotte, NC: Charlotte Douglas International | 61.2 | 38.8 | 76.0 | 45 |
| JFK | New York: Kennedy International | 57.6 | 42.4 | 75.4 | 44 |
| EWR | Newark, NJ: Newark Liberty International | 61.0 | 39.0 | 75.7 | 43 |
| MSP | Minneapolis/St. Paul: Minneapolis St Paul International | 67.1 | 32.9 | 76.2 | 42 |
| FLL | Fort Lauderdale, FL: Fort Lauderdale International | 71.3 | 28.7 | 79.3 | 41 |
| MIA | Miami: Miami International | 72.1 | 27.9 | 79.3 | 40 |
| LAS | Las Vegas: Mc Carran International | 73.6 | 26.4 | 80.3 | 39 |
| DFW | Dallas/Ft.Worth: Dallas/Ft Worth International | 70.0 | 30.0 | 76.4 | 38 |
| DEN | Denver: Denver International | 69.1 | 30.9 | 75.5 | 37 |
| SLC | Salt Lake City: Salt Lake International | 74.4 | 25.6 | 78.4 | 36 |
| MCO | Orlando: Orlando International | 75.2 | 24.8 | 79.8 | 35 |
| CLE | Cleveland: Hopkins International | 69.0 | 31.1 | 74.6 | 34 |
| IAD | Washington, DC: Dulles International | 65.3 | 34.7 | 72.3 | 33 |
| CVG | Cincinnati: Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International | 67.3 | 32.7 | 72.8 | 32 |
| PHL | Philadelphia: Philadelphia International | 62.0 | 38.0 | 71.3 | 31 |
| PIT | Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh International | 65.1 | 34.9 | 71.7 | 30 |
| ATL | Atlanta: Hartsfield-Jackson | 72.2 | 27.8 | 75.0 | 29 |
| PHX | Phoenix: Sky Harbor International | 73.1 | 26.9 | 75.3 | 28 |
| LAX | Los Angeles: Los Angeles International | 74.8 | 25.2 | 75.7 | 27 |
| IAH | Houston: Houston Intercontinental | 77.8 | 22.2 | 79.2 | 26 |
| LGA | New York: La Guardia | 63.2 | 36.8 | 67.8 | 25 |
| SFO | San Francisco: San Francisco International | 72.7 | 27.3 | 73.8 | 24 |
| BOS | Boston: Logan International | 67.4 | 32.6 | 70.7 | 23 |
| MSY | New Orleans: Louis Armstrong International | 77.9 | 22.1 | 77.9 | 22 |
| HNL | Honolulu: Honolulu International | 90.4 | 9.6 | 83.7 | 21 |
| MKE | Milwaukee: General Mitchell Field | 69.9 | 30.1 | 71.0 | 20 |
| IND | Indianapolis: Indianapolis International | 70.7 | 29.3 | 71.5 | 19 |
| SEA | Seattle: Seattle/Tacoma International | 74.7 | 25.3 | 74.2 | 18 |
| DCA | Washington, DC: Washington National | 67.2 | 32.8 | 66.3 | 17 |
| SAN | San Diego: San Diego International Lindbergh Field | 80.7 | 19.3 | 77.6 | 16 |
| RDU | Durham and Raleigh, NC: Raleigh-Durham International | 71.3 | 28.7 | 67.7 | 15 |
| TPA | Tampa: Tampa International | 78.4 | 21.6 | 72.9 | 14 |
| MEM | Memphis: Memphis International | 75.5 | 24.5 | 69.9 | 13 |
| SMF | Sacramento, CA: Sacramento Metropolitan | 79.9 | 20.1 | 72.6 | 12 |
| SNA | Santa Ana, CA: John Wayne International | 79.5 | 20.5 | 72.0 | 11 |
| MDW | Chicago: Chicago Midway | 74.4 | 25.6 | 61.2 | 10 |
| BWI | Baltimore: Baltimore/Washington International | 76.8 | 23.2 | 69.0 | 9 |
| PDX | Portland, OR: Portland International | 82.5 | 17.5 | 72.7 | 8 |
| BNA | Nashville: Nashville Metropolitan | 75.2 | 24.9 | 64.8 | 7 |
| MCI | Kansas City, MO: Kansas City International | 75.8 | 24.2 | 67.6 | 6 |
| STL | St. Louis: Lambert International | 76.5 | 23.5 | 64.6 | 5 |
| DAL | Dallas: Dallas Love Field | 77.4 | 22.6 | 62.7 | 4 |
| SJC | San Jose, CA: San Jose International | 82.4 | 17.6 | 69.4 | 3 |
| HOU | Houston: William P Hobby | 77.7 | 22.3 | 57.6 | 2 |
| OAK | Oakland, CA: Metropolitan Oakland International | 80.5 | 19.5 | 67.4 | 1 |
Sources: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Dept. of Transportation; the Boyd Group