Thanksgiving 2017: Tampa Airport Rankings For On-Time Performance

TAMPA, FL - If you're planning to travel by air to get to your Thanksgiving destination, be prepared for some delays. But if you are traveling to or from Tampa International Airport, you can take some solace from its ranking as the 8th best in on-time performance among the 45 busiest airports in the nation.

Analyzing five years of U.S. Department of Transportation data, RewardExpert, released a report Thursday ranking the on-time performance of the top domestic airlines at the 45 busiest airports in the United States around the Thanksgiving holiday and determined the best and worst days to travel during the five days before and after Thanksgiving.

For Tampa International, RewardExpert says the day after Thanksgiving is the best day to travel and Tuesday, Nov. 28 is the worst, so plan accordingly.

Among Tampa International’s 2,096 flights, 276 were delayed, giving it an on-time average of 84.97 percent.
The top five airports for on-time performance were: Honolulu, Hartsfield-Jackson (Atlanta), Douglas (Charlotte, N.C.), Southwest Florida (Fort Myers) and Salt Lake City

The worst airports for on-time performance were: San Francisco, Newark, Oakland, William P. Hobby (Houston) and Sacramento.

Overall, the analysis shows the lowest rates of delayed flights occur on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 23. But if you're not willing to wait until the holiday, people who can leave early and stay for a while are least likely to get stuck on the tarmac or terminal for a long wait for takeoff.

The best travel day this year is Saturday, Nov. 18, but Sunday, Nov. 19 will be a nightmare, according to the report, which said the highest rate of flight delays before the holiday occur on the Sunday preceding Thanksgiving.

The second-worst travel day is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving — Nov. 21 this year — according to the data. But if you can wait until Wednesday, Nov. 22, you're more likely to arrive on time. Over the past years, an average of 84.9 percent of all flights on Thanksgiving Eve arrived on time, the analysis showed.

Methodology: To arrive at the rankings, RewardExpert analyzed data from the DOT's Bureau of Statistics for the five-year period from 2011-2016, and examined the performance of nine airlines at 45 airports during the 11 day period around Thanksgiving (the five days before and after Thanksgiving). The average percentage of flights that departed and arrived on-time for each airline, airport, and day, each year were calculated. The forecast reflects a rolling five-year average of on-time performance. On-time performance for each day was then ranked for five days before and five days after Thanksgiving to obtain the best and worst days for on-time flights. Airlines and airports received ranks based on their average on-time record over the last five years during the Thanksgiving travel period.

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