The Most (and Least!) Delayed Airline to Fly with over the Holidays

If you need any further evidence of how stressful traveling can be around the holidays, look no further than the famous documentary Home Alone. The compounding pressure of flying around the holidays manifests itself in the form of a child being left at home to deal with a pair of inept burglars. With proper planning, this fiasco could be avoided entirely; so that you don’t end up like the McCallister family, you should select an airline that isn’t going to wreck your holiday plans.  (If you’re looking to make plans outside of the U.S. for this holiday season, these international airlines are always a great option.)

Forbes’ Grant Martin analyzed data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, looking at the 2014-2016 holiday seasons, in order to figure out which carrier is best when it comes to traveling during this special time of year. The rankings took into account on-time performance, as well as the quality of loyalty programs and global product updates.

According to the Department of Transportation, an “on-time” arrival occurs when a plane reaches the gate within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time. The most punctual airline of all U.S. carriers was Hawaiian, which had an average on-time holiday arrival time of 88.32 percent. The next most timely air carrier was Delta, however, Martin did not mention Delta’s specific on-time percentage. Frontier came in last in on-time performance, with just 73.17 percent of its flights delivered on time.    

Now that you know which airlines are the best at getting you to your destination on time, learn about some of the wackiest and bizarre reasons flights are delayed in the first place.

[Source: Forbes]