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Labor Day is upon us, marking one of the year’s busiest weekends for air travel, and while many will be taking to the friendly skies, not everyone will get where they’re going on time.
To help travelers plan and pad their time accordingly, a new ranking reveals which airlines and airports are the biggest culprits for delays and disruptions.
Analyzing data from the U.S. Department of Transportation from 2020-2025, Rightway Parking has ranked major airlines and 45 airports on reliability and on-time performance, revealing stark differences between those that stick the landing and those that miss the mark on Labor Day weekend.
According to the ranking, JetBlue is the worst offender with the highest Labor Day delay rate of any airline in the report: a staggering 23.1% of departures were delayed over the past half-decade.
Rounding out the bottom five are Frontier, American, and Southwest Airlines, all of whom averaged around 20% for delayed departures.
On the sunnier side of the sky, Hawaiian Airlines had the most stellar Labor Day track with a nominal 8.3% of departures delayed; Delta was close at wing with 10.0% of departures delayed.
In terms of cancellations, American Airlines, at 2%, had the dubious honor of the highest share of canceled Labor Day flights, more than double Delta Airlines’ 0.4% cancellation rate.
By airport, Dallas Love Field ranked worst for Labor Day travel delays from 2020 to 2025, with 20.7% of departures running late.
In July, Brooklyn-based WNBA team The Liberty documented their travel delay at Dallas Love Field, with rookie Pauline Astier sharing that she and her team had been stranded on the tarmac for 10 hours.
Coming in just behind Dallas Love Field in delays were Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (19.4%), Dallas/Fort Worth International (19.0%), and Houston’s William P. Hobby (18.9%).
Conversely, Honolulu’s Daniel K. Inouye International Airport had the best on-time record of any airport, with just 8.9% of departures delayed. Meanwhile, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and Minneapolis-St. Paul International, two major and majorly busy hubs, also ranked among the most dependable, both landing at 10.4% delayed.
Of the major airports in the report, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International was the best-performing during last year’s Labor Day weekend, with just 9.5% of its 6,996 departures delayed and just 0.14% canceled.
Dallas/Fort Worth International was the worst-performing major airport during Labor Day 2025, with 25.5% of its 6,883 departures delayed and 7.16% canceled.
According to Rightway, these patterns are consistent, and knowledge equals power for travelers:
“Checking how your airline and airport have historically performed over the holiday weekend, and building in extra buffer time if you’re flying through a lower-ranked hub, can make the difference between a smooth trip and a frustrating one.”
While JetBlue was dead last for timeliness, the airline recently announced new first-class passenger seating, suggesting that for the well-heeled, waiting can be done more comfortably.
For those driving instead of, or in addition to, flying, AAA recently revealed the best and worst times to hit the road during Labor Day weekend.
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