These Are the Airports Most Likely to Cancel Your Flight.
We all have one airport that we try to avoid at all costs – mine is LaGuardia. Having lived ten years in New York, I know that if I’m flying through the LGA, I can count on some kind of travel accident, be it a delay, a cancellation, or a dry croissant from Au Bon Pain.
Fortunately, we now know which airports we should all avoid, thanks to the InsureMyTrip report. The company this week compiled 2018 data to compile a ranking of airports based on canceled flights taken from the Transport Statistics Bureau of the Ministry of Transport.
Which airport was the biggest culprit last year? For the second consecutive year, LaGuardia ranked first, canceling about 4.07% of departing flights, which means that every 25th flight never started. The LGA was closely watched by Norfolk International Airport in Virginia, which canceled four percent of flights, and Charleston International Airport, South Carolina, which canceled 3.89 percent of flights.
Meanwhile, airports such as Salt Lake City International Airport and Boise Terminal canceled the fewest flights in 2018 (canceling just 0.30 and 0.43 percent of flights, respectively) – if you plan on connecting, stop in Utah or Idaho will not be. this is such a bad idea.
According to InsureMyTrip, harsh weather is largely to blame for last year’s flight cancellations due to Hurricane Florence and the Grayson winter storm that affected flights to the east coast. However, 2019 does not look any better given the landing of Boeing Max 737 jets and sudden airline cancellations ( 16,726 flights were canceled in January 2019 alone, the latest recorded month).
What if your flight is canceled?
While this depends on your airline, you should contact them immediately or speak with the service staff to confirm that you will be rebooked to another flight (airlines such as Delta may do this automatically if canceled). Weather is a particularly troublesome problem as it is outside the control of the airlines. In this case, you will still be rebooked, but you may be responsible for your hotel accommodation if you stay overnight – you can check our flight cancellation handling guide for more information.
If you want to know which airports you should avoid, check out the list of the most serious offenders below. For a complete list, check out the InsureMyTrip press release so you’ll never be stranded at the airport again.