Packed holiday flights: How SLC Int’l stacks up against US’s largest airports in delays and cancelations

SALT LAKE CITY — Travelers, brace yourselves: holiday flights will be packed. And it will make for an interesting test for the new Salt Lake City International Airport as the number of travelers coming through the doors is expected to be at or very close to pre-pandemic levels. Airlines have cut back thousands of flights going into the holidays in efforts to curb the surge of delays and cancellations that hit airports over the summer. So, we wanted to see how Salt Lake International stacks up.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Salt Lake International is the nation’s 21st busiest airport. But if just seeing that makes you nervous about getting delayed, this might put you at ease: Salt Lake is the nation’s top airport for both on-time arrivals at 84.18% and on-time departures at 83.05%.

However, when it comes to delay times, Salt Lake ranks 19th among the nation’s top 30 airports with an average delay of 68.54 minutes for departures and 72.06 minutes for arrivals.

The most delay-free time to take off from Salt Lake is between 8 and 9 a.m., where 92.6% of the departures are on-time. It gets worse as the day goes on. From 7 to 8 p.m., the on-time percentage drops down to 60.7%.

How the trek to SLC’s B gates compares to other airports

Now the really good news: For a state known for our snow, we have a remarkably low number of canceled flights. Salt Lake’s current percentage of flights canceled sits at just 1.13%. That is the lowest cancellation rate in the nation.

If you’re flying back from Newark Liberty International, good luck, it’s the nation’s worst for cancellations at 5.11%