This NYC airport has been ranked among the worst for spring break travel

Whether or not you’re attending school, we all have to face the fact that we’re entering spring break season, also known as frat bro Christmas. This means that the next few weeks could turn out to be a pretty chaotic time to travel, but there are going to be particular airports where you’re going to be at a much higher risk of experiencing delays than others.

The website aGamble.com evaluated flight departure data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation to figure out which airports are at highest risk of experiencing delays in March and April, and honestly most of the results are not that surprising.

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Two airports in the NYC area made it on the list. Newark came in at No. 7 with a delay rate of 25.81% and JFK came in at No. 10, with a delay rate of 25.06%. The two airports are also consistently ranked as some of the worst in the country year round, which is a shock to absolutely nobody. 

The biggest delays of all this season, though, are going to come out of Florida, which had three airports on the top 10 list. The airport with the highest number of  spring break delays was Fort Lauderdale, with an unreasonable 39.5% delay rate, while Orlando came in 3rd, with a 32.6% delay rate. Miami was in 6th, with a 30.1% delay rate, which is to be expected, considering they have a serious problem with spring breakers that has gotten so bad they created an entire campaign to deter people from traveling there.

Flight delays are caused by a variety of factors, including aircraft cleaning, cargo loading, engineering inspections, late crew, weight and balance delays, and plenty of other factors, per the Federal Aviation Administration. On top of that, there’s still a shortage of pilots and flight attendants after airlines urged many of its staff to accept buyouts and early retirements during the pandemic when demand for travel was low, per Axios. 

Fortunately, there are some airports that serve as a positive example for the rest to follow— the study also looked at the airports with the least delays during spring break season, and Pittsburgh’s International airport came in on top, followed by Portland International, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International, Washington Dulles International, Ronald Reagan Washington National, and Minneapolis-St Paul International. In short, if you want to avoid any risk of flight delays this season, you might want to consider changing your whirlwind Miami trip into a Pittsburgh palooza.  

Here is the complete top 25 list of worst airports to travel from during spring break according to aGamble:

1. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (Fort Lauderdale)
2. Harry Reid International (Las Vegas)
3. Orlando International (Orlando)
4. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (Baltimore)
5. Chicago Midway International (Chicago)
6. Miami International (Miami)
7. Newark Liberty International (Newark)
8. Dallas/Fort Worth International (Dallas)
9. Denver International (Denver)
10. John F. Kennedy International (New York)
11. Dallas Love Field (Dallas)
12. George Bush Intercontinental/Houston (Houston)
13. Austin - Bergstrom International (Austin)
14. Louis Armstrong New Orleans International (New Orleans)
15. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (Atlanta)
16. Metro Oakland International (Oakland) 
17. John Wayne Airport-Orange County (Santa Ana)
18. Tampa International (Tampa)
19. Nashville International (Nashville)
20. St Louis Lambert International (St Louis)
21. Phoenix Sky Harbor International (Phoneix)
22. San Francisco International (San Francisco)
23. William P Hobby (Houston)
24. Southwest Florida International (Fort Myers)
25. Logan International (Boston)