Holiday travel
Labor Day weekend flight delays
The long weekend ending on the first Monday of September, the end of summer travel.
Based on 2025 and earlier data. 2027 results expected around November 2027. Historical statistics, not a forecast and not live status.
The next Labor Day weekend runs from Friday 3 September 2027 to Monday 6 September 2027. This page does not forecast it: it is based on 2025 data, the most recent Labor Day weekend with complete figures, and on every year back to 2023. 2027 results are expected around November 2027, since the US DOT releases on-time data roughly two months after each month ends.
Labor Day weekend usually leaves a mark: 2 of the last 3 years moved at least one headline figure past this site's measurable-effect test. It is not always for the worse, though; 1 of 3 years ran more punctually than the weeks around them.
This page covers 3 Labor Day weekends, 2023, 2024 and 2025: 2 with a measurable effect and 1 without, each with a page of its own.
Key figures for 2025
On time, 2025
81.0%
Normal weeks: 81.5%
Avg delay
74 min
Normal weeks: 70 min
Cancelled
1.05%
Normal weeks: 0.62%
Flights
74,543
Friday 29 August to Monday 1 September 2025
Measured against its own surrounding weeks, Labor Day weekend has run +3.5 points of on-time rate in 2023, −3.9 points of on-time rate in 2024 and −0.5 points of on-time rate in 2025. Cancellations shifted −1.27 points in 2023, +0.31 points in 2024 and +0.43 points in 2025, and the average delay of late flights −3 minutes in 2023, +7 minutes in 2024 and +4 minutes in 2025.
From 73,092 flights in 2023 to 74,543 in 2025, the holiday schedule held steady. Per day, 2025 ran −1% against its normal weeks, 18,636 flights against 18,887.
For anyone connecting: 4.9% in 2023 (normally 6.5%), 7.3% in 2024 (normally 5.4%) and 6.9% in 2025 (normally 6.4%) of arrivals ran an hour or more late.
Year on year
Every Labor Day weekend in the data
| Year | Flights | On time | Normal weeks | Change | Cancelled | Normal weeks |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 73,092 | 85.0% | 81.5% | +3.5 | 0.53% | 1.80% |
| 2024 | 75,754 | 79.5% | 83.4% | −3.9 | 0.93% | 0.62% |
| 2025, close to normal | 74,543 | 81.0% | 81.5% | −0.5 | 1.05% | 0.62% |
“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
The most punctual Labor Day weekend in the data was 2023 at 85.0% on time; the least was 2024 at 79.5%, 5.5 points lower.
If you want to avoid the fullest airports, the peak days were Friday 1 September 2023 (19,988 flights), Friday 30 August 2024 (20,885 flights) and Friday 29 August 2025 (20,329 flights).
Low points by year: Friday 1 September 2023 (77.5%), Friday 30 August 2024 (71.2%) and Friday 29 August 2025 (77.3%). The worst day moved around from year to year, which points to weather rather than to a fixed crunch in the holiday schedule.
The strongest day of the window across 2023, 2024 and 2025 was the Sunday, 84.7% on time on average, and the weakest the Friday at 75.3%. Labor 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 91.7% on time across 2023, 2024 and 2025 and the 5pm–8pm window 72.7%. That 19.0 points gap is bigger than the holiday effect itself.
Cancellations ranged from 0.53% in 2023 to 1.05% in 2025, when Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) was the worst-hit large airport at 9.35%.
Airports and airlines
Who handles Labor Day weekend best
Dallas (DAL) is the airport to worry about: across 2023, 2024 and 2025 it averaged −13.1 points against its own normal weeks. Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) and Houston (HOU) followed, and Boston (BOS) coped best at +5.5.
Worst year-on-normal airport, year by year: Las Vegas (LAS, −11.9 points) in 2023, Dallas (DAL, −17.3 points) in 2024 and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW, −27.5 points) in 2025.
Choosing the airline changes the odds by 17.2 points on average: Republic Airways led at 90.1%, Delta Air Lines came next at 89.4%, and American Airlines trailed at 72.9%.
Against their own normal weeks, Envoy Air was hit hardest by the holiday on average, −6.2 points, while Alaska Airlines fared best at +4.2.
The most punctual large carrier each year was Republic Airways in 2023 (95.6%), Hawaiian Airlines in 2024 (86.7%) and Delta Air Lines in 2025 (90.5%).
LAX to SFO was among the five busiest routes in every year, so its figures on the year pages are worth comparing across years.
What to do with this
Planning Labor Day weekend 2027
What the years add up to for 2027: fly the Sunday if the dates allow; take a 5am–8am departure; and allow more connection time at Dallas (DAL) and Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW). None of it guarantees a smooth trip; it moves the odds.
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
- Labor Day weekend 202385.0%
- Labor Day weekend 202479.5%
- Labor Day weekend 202581.0%
- 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.