Guides

On-time rate, median vs. 90th-percentile delay, and cancellation rate — what each number on a route actually tells you, and why one good headline figure can hide a bad flight.

Airlines sell connections on their minimum connection time, not on whether the inbound flight arrives in time to make them. Here's how to read the real misconnection risk from the arrival record.

An airline can lift its on-time rate by cancelling the flights it would have run late. Why you have to read cancellation and diversion rates next to the on-time number, never on their own.

When two carriers fly the same route, which one is the safer bet? The five figures that matter, why the worst-case delay matters more than the average, and how to read a head-to-head honestly.

Carrier, weather, National Aviation System, security, and late-arriving aircraft — the federal delay-cause split decoded, including why the biggest single cause is often just yesterday's delays catching up.

The oldest piece of travel advice there is — book the first flight out. It's mostly true, and the federal record shows exactly how much on-time rates decay as the day goes on, airport by airport.

Summer thunderstorms and winter snow drag on-time rates every year, and the pattern is remarkably stable. Which months run late, how big the seasonal swing is, and why it's weather more than the airline.

An airline's on-time rate can look strong while its cancellation rate quietly signals real operational risk. Here's how to read both numbers together using the federal record.

An airline's on-time rate on a given route depends heavily on whether it's departing from its own hub or a competitor's stronghold. This guide explains the operational mechanics and shows how to read hub advantage into the DOT numbers before you book.

NAS delays — air traffic control, volume, and system-wide weather — are the largest single delay category on most U.S. routes yet invisible in any one airline's reliability score. Understanding how they work explains why a historically on-time route can still run late on any given day.

Federal filings show early-morning departures beat their airport average at all 13 large airports measured, by 10 to 19 points. Red-eyes beat it at only three. The numbers, the mechanism, and how to check your own airport.

A route's annual on-time rate hides the months that drag it down. This guide shows how to read seasonal weather risk out of a single percentage — and which months to check before you book.

On-time rate only measures whether a flight arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — not whether it lands at the airport you booked. Comparing diversion rates alongside on-time and cancellation rates, side by side across carriers, reveals which airlines absorb delay and which reroute.