Study Reveals Worst U.S. Airport For Delays in 2025
Flying in the United States is often an incredibly convenient way to travel, but can sometimes be a nightmare. Flight delays, cancellations, lost luggage and other misfortunes can all rear their head at inopportune times.
As far as which airports are most reliable, passenger services and flight compensation company SkyRefund attempted to determine that by analyzing the 20 busiest American airports and determining which ones had the most and least delayed flights in 2025.
How the study was conducted
SkyRefund used numbers from the Department of Transportation (DOT) from January 2025 through October 2025, which was the most recent month for which data was available.
"A flight delay was defined by the DOT as a flight arriving or departing more than 15 minutes outside of its schedule, and the percentage of flights subject to such a delay as a percentage of overall flights was used to rank the airports," SkyRefund said in a press release shared with Men's Journal.
After all the data was crunched, Dallas Fort Worth International Airport stood atop the list with the most delays.
The 10 U.S. airports with the most delayed flights in 2025, per SkyRefund
- Dallas Fort Worth International - 27.5% of flights delayed
- Denver International - 25.7% of flights delayed
- Miami International - 25.2% of flights delayed
- Charlotte Douglas International - 23.59% of flights delayed
- Chicago O'Hare International - 23.9% of flights delayed
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International - 23.7% of flights delayed
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta - 23.1% of flights delayed
- Las Vegas Harry Reid International - 22.9% of flights delayed
- Philadelphia International - 22.8% of flights delayed
- Austin Bergstrom International - 22.6% of flights delayed
"Dallas’s struggles are particularly concerning, given its status as the second busiest airport in the country meaning that difficulties there can cause a significant number of knock-on delays at other airports," said SkyRefund CEO Ivaylo Danailov.
Overall, Danailov said 2025 was "a difficult year" for American aviation, though he did say several flight hubs did show improvement and lauded Los Angeles for "consistently strong performance...especially for an airport of its size."
Which airports had the least delays?
Los Angeles International (LAX) ranked first with only 17.1% of flights delayed, followed by Minneapolis-St Paul International, San Francisco International, Detroit Metro Wayne County and New York John F. Kennedy International.
New York LaGuardia, Phoenix Sky Harbor International, Seattle-Tacoma International, Newark Liberty International and Boston Logan International rounded out the top 10.