Most of us have experienced the feeling of arriving at the airport an hour early only to have to wait an extraordinary length of time after the flight was supposed to have departed. These delays can be the result of a variety of things.
However, if you are planning to visit Europe make sure to budget extra travel time. If recent airport delays are any indication, you will need it. For departures, European airports, more especially those in Italy, are consistently the worst, although Beijing Capital Airport owns the top spot.
The Top 5 most delayed departure airports include:
Beijing Capital International, Beijing: The rate of on time departures for this airport is 47.86% which means that over 45% of the departing flights are delayed by 30 minutes or more. In all fairness to the airport, however, the poor on time departure rate could be the result of the Olympics.
Manchester Airport, Northern England: The rate of on time departures for this airport is 49.11%.
Venice Marco Polo Airport, Italy: The rate of on time departures for this airport is 53.59%. This airport saw 7 million passengers during 2007. Approximately 50% of delayed departure flights were late by more than 30 minutes.
Nice cote d Azur airport, French Riviera: The rate of on time departures for this airport is 56.31%. This airport served 10.5 million passengers during 2007 and is the 3rd busiest airport in France.
Leonardo da Vinci Fiumiciano, Rome: The rate of the departures that were on time for this airport is only 57.83%. This airport served as many as 22,000,000 passengers during a recent year. Approximately 48% of all of the departures which were delayed were late by as much as 30 minutes.
Not all the news is bad however. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is ranked second among the United States 15 busiest airports. It also experiences the fewest delays of domestic departing flights, according to statistics released by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT). In the last few years, domestic departures were on schedule 84% of the time. This stellar performance put LAX only behind the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport which is also among the nation’s busiest airports. As far as departure performance goes LAX Airport ranks 7th among all of the US passenger airports. A flight departure delay is defined by the DOT as one which occurs when a flight departs 15 or more minutes later than scheduled. As recent as 2008, LAX served as many as 59.8 million passengers and is the country’s third busiest airport. Detroit, having some 35.1 million passengers, holds the rank of 13th in the nation.
