Heading to the Denver International Airport for a Labor Day trip? Everyone else is, too.
Denver has the country’s fourth busiest airport during the Labor Day travel season with an average of 4,913 flights scheduled from the Wednesday before the Sept. 4 holiday to the Wednesday after, according to a travel forecast released Wednesday by RewardExpert.
The forecast examined Department of Transportation flight data for eight days surrounding Labor Day from the past five years to determine the best and worst days to fly, airports with the best on-time performances and the busiest airports in the U.S.
Although DIA is one of the busiest airports, it falls just shy of cracking the top 10 most on-time. Instead, the airport takes the No. 11 spot with 86.8 percent of flights arriving and departing on time. A flight is considered on-time if it takes off or lands within 15 minutes of its scheduled time.
Of the 10 major U.S. airlines, Denver-based, ultra-low-cost carrier Frontier Airlines ranked fifth for the best on-time performance with 86.6 percent of flights on-time during the holiday weekend.
On average, there are 28 percent fewer flights during the weekend of Labor Day than the days leading up to it and after. The best days to fly from any airport are the Wednesday and Sunday before the holiday. The best day to return is Labor Day itself as historically, the Tuesday and Wednesday after the holiday have the most delays and cancellations.
But don’t go changing in flights yet. DIA says the RewardExpert report is based on old data.
According to the airport, there are 12,053 flights scheduled during that eight-day period, making it the fifth busiest. At DIA, Wednesday is actually one of the busiest days to fly. Saturday and Sunday are the best days to fly, airport spokesman Heath Montgomery said.
Nationally, Hawaii was at the top of the charts. Hawaiian Airlines had the best on-time performance among airlines while Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu had the best on-time performance at 90.9 percent. Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta was the busiest airport, averaging 8,194 flights during the holiday period.
On the other end of the scale, hopefully, you’re not flying JetBlue Airways to Newark Liberty airport in New Jersey on the Friday before Labor Day. If you are, you may want to start prepping for some flight headaches. RewardExpert reported both the airline and the airport were at the bottom of the pack for holiday on-time performance.
UPDATE 8/23 4:27 p.m.: This story has been updated with comments from DIA.
