Flight delays are a seemingly unending issue in the airline industry. In 2023 so far, nearly a quarter of US domestic flights arrived late or were canceled.
In most industries such a high delay rate would be considered unacceptable, but in air travel, delays are tolerated and even expected, even though they cause missed connections, lost baggage, and additional expenses.
I compiled data from 1987-2023 from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics into a massive spreadsheet to perform an in-depth data analysis of flight data. From here, I extracted a series of findings, including:
- Causes of airline delays
- Most and least delayed airlines, airports, and states
- The impact of budget airlines on flight delays
- Airline delay performance over time