Atlanta Airport Among Best For On-Time Memorial Day Flights: Ranking

ATLANTA, GA — Hartsfield Jackson International Airport is among the best in the United States when it comes to flights taking off on time during the Memorial Day holiday weekend, according to a new ranking.

ATL ranked 5th on the list of airports with the highest percentages of on-time flights over the busy holiday weekend, according to the ranking compiled by JW Surety, an insurance and surety bond provider.

On average, 84.9 percent of flights at ATL took off on time over the Memorial Day travel holiday.

The company determined each airport's ranking using data from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Air Travel Consumer Report, focusing on Memorial Day data from 2015 to 2023.

Nearly 43.8 million travelers are expected to head out of town this Memorial Day weekend, according to AAA's annual holiday travel forecast. The prediction marks a 4 percent increase over last year and comes close to matching 2005’s record of 44 million travelers.

About 3.51 million travelers are expected to reach their destination by plane, an increase of 4.8 percent over last year and a 9 percent jump compared to 2019.

"This will be the most crowded Memorial Day weekend at airports since 2005," AAA said in its travel forecast.

That means delays could be imminent if you're flying out of several other U.S. airports.

San Francisco International Airport earned the top spot on the new list: On average, 27.8 percent of flights there are delayed on Memorial Day Weekend. Rounding out the worst three were Newark Liberty International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport.

Airports with the least delayed flights were Salt Lake City International Airport, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport.

The airlines with the highest percentage of delays over Memorial Day weekend are Virgin Atlantic (29 percent), Frontier Airlines (23 percent) and JetBlue Airways (23 percent), according to the ranking.

The airlines with the lowest percentage of delays were Hawaiian Airlines (10 percent), Alaska Airlines (11 percent) and Delta Air Lines (14 percent).

See the full ranking online.