NYC Airports Worst in Nation for Flight Delays: Report

Pictured: Terminal 1 at JFK. Photo by Eric Salard

NEW YORK CITY, NY — JFK, Newark Liberty and LaGuardia Airport were three of the four most delayed major airports in the nation last year, a new study has found — thus confirming the sneaking, though perhaps unquantified (until now) suspicions of many New Yorkers.

The analysis, released Thursday by the Global Gateway Alliance, an advocacy group pushing for improvements to NYC-area airports, found that when averaged together, arrivals and departures at JFK, Newark and LaGuardia were on schedule between 73 and 77 percent of the time last year.

Overall, the results landed JFK in 26th place on the list of the nation's 29 busiest airports, down 10 spots from last year. Newark came in 28th, dropping one spot from 2015.

And LaGuardia came in dead last at 29th — down four spots from last year.

By comparison, at the Salt Lake International Airport, the nation's least-delayed hub for two years running, planes arrived and departed on schedule about 87 percent of the time in 2015, according to the study.

All data for the study was drawn from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates all three airports, did not return a request for comment.

In 2015, the Authority’s airports handled 124 million passengers, according to its own figures — 8 million more than in 2014.

The airport watchdog group behind the study warned Thursday that NYC flight delays will only become more rampant as passenger loads continue to grow. That is, the group said, unless airlines and airports finish modernizing their air traffic control technology — a long-term transition from radar to a satellite-based system called NextGen.

“It is past time for the FAA to roll out NextGen fully where it’s needed most to alleviate the chronic delays, not only here but across the country,” Joe Sitt, the group's chair, said in a statement.

In 2010, researchers at the University of California, Berkeley looked at 2007 airport delay numbers and concluded that they cost the U.S. economy $32.9 billion. That year, the Port Authority’s airports handled fewer than 110 million passengers.