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DelayAtlas

Holiday rankings

Worst and best US holidays to fly, ranked

Every US travel holiday in the data from 2022 on, 39 holiday-years in all, ranked by the share of flights that arrived on time. The change column is each holiday against the two weeks either side of it.

Historical statistics from US DOT on-time data, not forecasts and not live status.

The least punctual holiday on record here is Martin Luther King Jr. weekend 2024 at 59.0% on time, followed by Christmas and New Year 2022 (63.5%), Presidents Day weekend 2025 (64.1%), Memorial Day weekend 2024 (72.0%) and Christmas and New Year 2025 (72.4%).

At the other end, Veterans Day 2024 was the most punctual at 89.8%, ahead of Veterans Day 2023 (89.1%), Labor Day weekend 2023 (85.0%), Columbus Day weekend 2024 (84.8%) and Memorial Day weekend 2023 (84.6%).

Christmas and New Year appears 2 times in the ten least punctual holiday-years, more than any other holiday, so its low ranking is a pattern rather than one bad year.

Ranked by how far each holiday fell behind its own normal weeks, the biggest drops were Presidents Day weekend 2025 (−18.3 points), Martin Luther King Jr. weekend 2024 (−17.4 points) and Christmas and New Year 2022 (−13.5 points). The biggest improvements were Fourth of July week 2024 (+9.4), Easter weekend 2023 (+7.1) and Memorial Day weekend 2023 (+5.4), which is a reminder that a holiday can fly better than an ordinary week.

Averaged across its holidays, 2026 was the worst year to travel at 76.1% on time over 5 holidays, and 2023 the best at 82.0%. A year is counted by the holidays that start in it, and the most recent year only includes the holidays that have complete data so far.

The full list

Ranked

Worst and best US holidays to fly, ranked
HolidayOn timeNormal weeksChangeAvg delayCancelled
1. Martin Luther King Jr. weekend 202459.0%76.4%−17.489 min10.42%
2. Christmas and New Year 202263.5%77.0%−13.584 min11.25%
3. Presidents Day weekend 202564.1%82.4%−18.383 min3.19%
4. Memorial Day weekend 202472.0%74.2%−2.278 min1.40%
5. Christmas and New Year 202572.4%78.9%−6.573 min1.95%
6. Fourth of July week 202572.7%70.1%+2.680 min1.65%
7. Spring break 202673.1%78.9%−5.880 min4.06%
8. Fourth of July week 202373.9%70.3%+3.676 min1.62%
9. Memorial Day weekend 202674.2%78.8%−4.672 min0.95%
10. Columbus Day weekend 202574.4%81.8%−7.468 min0.56%
11. Spring break 202374.6%76.1%−1.565 min1.23%
12. Christmas and New Year 202474.6%81.0%−6.476 min0.99%
13. Martin Luther King Jr. weekend 202676.8%80.3%−3.569 min0.74%
14. Thanksgiving week 202577.8%76.3%+1.576 min1.74%
15. Memorial Day weekend 202577.9%76.6%+1.380 min0.65%
16. Veterans Day 202578.0%79.8%−1.875 min6.39%
17. Presidents Day weekend 202678.2%80.6%−2.474 min1.27%
18. Easter weekend 202678.2%80.1%−1.970 min1.57%
19. Presidents Day weekend 202478.4%84.2%−5.869 min0.40%
20. Spring break 202478.9%79.9%−1.068 min0.94%
21. Fourth of July week 202479.5%70.1%+9.472 min0.84%
22. Labor Day weekend 202479.5%83.4%−3.975 min0.93%
23. Martin Luther King Jr. weekend 202579.9%81.9%−2.064 min1.85%
24. Martin Luther King Jr. weekend 202380.1%79.2%+0.959 min0.45%
25. Spring break 202580.5%79.8%+0.771 min0.97%
26. Labor Day weekend 202581.0%81.5%−0.574 min1.05%
27. Easter weekend 202581.4%79.7%+1.775 min0.47%
28. Christmas and New Year 202381.8%80.8%+1.063 min0.48%
29. Presidents Day weekend 202382.0%80.5%+1.562 min0.44%
30. Easter weekend 202482.4%79.0%+3.465 min0.27%
31. Easter weekend 202383.2%76.1%+7.160 min0.56%
32. Thanksgiving week 202383.2%87.0%−3.860 min0.13%
33. Thanksgiving week 202483.6%84.2%−0.662 min0.14%
34. Columbus Day weekend 202384.0%83.5%+0.563 min0.22%
35. Memorial Day weekend 202384.6%79.2%+5.468 min0.46%
36. Columbus Day weekend 202484.8%86.2%−1.466 min1.11%
37. Labor Day weekend 202385.0%81.5%+3.571 min0.53%
38. Veterans Day 202389.1%86.5%+2.658 min0.11%
39. Veterans Day 202489.8%85.4%+4.458 min0.08%

Reading the list

What the ranking shows

Winter holidays averaged 74.2% on time across 12 holiday-years, against 78.0% for the 10 late-spring and summer ones. On this record the winter holidays are the riskier ones to fly.

The highest cancellation rates came over Christmas and New Year 2022 (11.25%), Martin Luther King Jr. weekend 2024 (10.42%) and Veterans Day 2025 (6.39%).

Measured by how late the late flights ran, the worst were Martin Luther King Jr. weekend 2024 (89 minutes on average), Christmas and New Year 2022 (84 minutes on average) and Presidents Day weekend 2025 (83 minutes on average).

25 of the 39 holiday-years moved on-time rate, delay length or cancellations far enough from their normal weeks to count as a measurable holiday effect; the other 14 flew much like any other fortnight.

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

Other holiday rankings

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.