Holiday travel
Columbus Day weekend flight delays
The long weekend ending on the second Monday of October.
Based on 2025 and earlier data. 2026 results expected around December 2026. Historical statistics, not a forecast and not live status.
Dates first: Friday 9 October 2026 to Monday 12 October 2026 is the next Columbus Day weekend. No figures for it exist yet, and they will not until about December 2026, because US on-time data lags by roughly two months. Everything below is based on 2025 data and the Columbus Day weekends before it back to 2023.
Most years, Columbus Day weekend flies like any other stretch of its season. 1 of the last 3 years showed a measurable effect, and the average on-time gap to the surrounding weeks is −2.8 points.
Of the 3 Columbus Day weekends on record here (2023, 2024 and 2025), 1 moved a headline figure past the test and 2 did not.
Key figures for 2025
On time, 2025
74.4%
Normal weeks: 81.8%
Avg delay
68 min
Normal weeks: 63 min
Cancelled
0.56%
Normal weeks: 0.36%
Flights
80,333
Friday 10 October to Monday 13 October 2025
Against the two weeks either side, the on-time rate moved +0.5 points in 2023, −1.4 points in 2024 and −7.4 points in 2025, an average of −2.8. Average delay moved +2 minutes in 2023, +4 minutes in 2024 and +5 minutes in 2025, and cancellations −0.18 points in 2023, −0.06 points in 2024 and +0.20 points in 2025.
From 78,009 flights in 2023 to 80,333 in 2025, the holiday schedule grew 3%. Per day, 2025 ran +3% against its normal weeks, 20,083 flights against 19,529.
The share of arrivals an hour or more late, the figure that decides a connection, was 4.7% in 2023 (normally 4.6%), 4.8% in 2024 (normally 3.9%) and 8.8% in 2025 (normally 5.4%).
Year on year
Every Columbus Day weekend in the data
| Year | Flights | On time | Normal weeks | Change | Cancelled | Normal weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023, close to normal | 78,009 | 84.0% | 83.5% | +0.5 | 0.22% | 0.40% |
| 2024, close to normal | 82,056 | 84.8% | 86.2% | −1.4 | 1.11% | 1.17% |
| 2025 | 80,333 | 74.4% | 81.8% | −7.4 | 0.56% | 0.36% |
“Normal weeks” are the two weeks either side of the holiday, leaving out other holiday periods. Change is in percentage points.
Patterns
What repeats from year to year
2025 was the hardest Columbus Day weekend to fly, 74.4% on time, and 2024 the easiest at 84.8%: a spread of 10.4 points between the best and worst years.
Schedules peaked on Friday 6 October 2023 (20,372 flights), Friday 11 October 2024 (21,548 flights) and Friday 10 October 2025 (21,040 flights).
The worst single day was Friday 6 October 2023 (81.7%), Friday 11 October 2024 (81.7%) and Monday 13 October 2025 (70.9%). The worst day moved around from year to year, which points to weather rather than to a fixed crunch in the holiday schedule.
On average across 2023, 2024 and 2025, the Saturday ran best at 85.0% on time and the Friday worst at 78.9%. Columbus Day weekend lands on the same weekdays every year, so this is a pattern to plan around.
By departure time, the 5am–8am window averaged 91.4% on time across 2023, 2024 and 2025 and the 5pm–8pm window 73.3%. That 18.1 points gap is bigger than the holiday effect itself.
The cancellation rate has been as low as 0.22% (2023) and as high as 1.11% (2024), with Tampa (TPA) at 8.71% in the worst year.
Airports and airlines
Who handles Columbus Day weekend best
Newark (EWR) is the airport to worry about: across 2023, 2024 and 2025 it averaged −11.5 points against its own normal weeks. Phoenix (PHX) and New York (JFK) followed, and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) coped best at +1.7.
Worst year-on-normal airport, year by year: San Diego (SAN, −9.3 points) in 2023, Newark (EWR, −10.0 points) in 2024 and Phoenix (PHX, −28.3 points) in 2025.
Choosing the airline changes the odds by 16.5 points on average: Envoy Air led at 87.1%, Delta Air Lines came next at 84.8%, and JetBlue Airways trailed at 70.6%.
Against their own normal weeks, JetBlue Airways was hit hardest by the holiday on average, −7.1 points, while Envoy Air fared best at +1.4.
Top of the carrier table each year: Republic Airways in 2023 (90.4%), Envoy Air in 2024 (91.2%) and Envoy Air in 2025 (82.9%).
Year after year the same routes carry the holiday: SFO to LAX and LAX to SFO ranked in the busiest five each time.
What to do with this
Planning Columbus Day weekend 2026
For Columbus Day weekend 2026: fly the Saturday if the dates allow; take a 5am–8am departure; and allow more connection time at Newark (EWR) and Phoenix (PHX). Each year page has the day-by-day and airport-by-airport detail.
On time means arriving less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time. Average delay counts delayed flights only; cancellations are a share of every scheduled flight. A holiday is compared with the two weeks either side of it, leaving out days that belong to other holidays. The measurable-effect test asks for 3 points of on-time rate, 5 minutes of average delay or 2 points of cancellations; airports, routes and carriers need 500 flights in the window to be ranked. The US DOT publishes on-time data about two months after the month it covers.
Related
Where to go next
- Columbus Day weekend 202384.0%
- Columbus Day weekend 202484.8%
- Columbus Day weekend 202574.4%
- Every US travel holiday
- The holidays that fly better than a normal week
- The busiest US travel days, and what they cost in punctuality
- How the figures are computed
Holiday windows are fixed by rule each year. See every window.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.