With the recent cascade of headlines about canceled flights and air traffic control staffing issues, you might assume there’s never been a worse time to travel by air. But if you’re headed through Boston, you’re in luck.
When it comes to delays and cancellations, Logan International Airport is outperforming other similarly-sized hubs, including Chicago O’Hare, Newark Liberty and New York LaGuardia. In fact, over the past few years, the airport’s on-time performance has steadily improved, despite increasing air traffic and a record number of travelers headed through its terminals.
Logan Airport does not itself publicly release on-time performance statistics. But data provided to GBH News by the aviation analytics firm Cirium shows that the airport’s cancellation rate has dipped by 38% since 2022. Delays are also down, with the share of planes taking off within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure time increasing by nearly 2% over the same three year period.
“The Boston flying public should be thankful that the airport and the airlines are doing such a great job, especially compared to other airports,” said Cirium’s Mike Arnot.
In July, which is historically one of the busiest travel months of the year, Logan had an on-time departure rate of roughly 72%. That falls below the industry benchmark for “strong” on-time performance of 80%, but it’s still significantly higher than O’Hare, Newark and LaGuardia, which all had an on-time rate near 65%.
According to Arnot, Logan’s on-time performance is impressive given the recent spike in the number of planes traveling through the region combined with New England’s unique weather challenges.
“The Northeast corridor, over the past couple of years, has become quite busy,” he said. “But Boston is performing well despite the weather, despite the smoke, despite the hurricanes, nor’easters and snowstorms.”
Massport, the quasi-public agency that oversees Logan’s operations, did not answer questions about how the airport has managed to improve its performance statistics despite an increase in traffic and a severe national shortage of air traffic controllers.
“We are proud of Logan’s on time performance so far this season,” Massport spokesperson Jennifer Mehigan said in an emailed statement. “Our Operations team works closely with the FAA and airline partners to ensure the airfield remains safe and efficient so aircraft can move in and out as quickly as possible and remain on time.”
But she also warned that Logan will be conducting a runway project starting next month, which could cause unforeseen delays.
Produced with assistance from the Public Media Journalists Association Editor Corps funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the American people.
