If you absolutely, positively need to fly to a business appointment, do your homework or look at someone else's and plan to arrive a day early. Travel is heaviest, at most airports, on Friday and Thursday evenings. You have the best chance of leaving and arriving on time if you take one of the new crop of dawn flights around 6 a.m. Let anticipated weather be your guide. That means, if you have another option, try not to make connecting flights in Detroit, Chicago and Cleveland during the winter.
Weather patterns make delays inevitable.
For example, government statistics show that the worst monthly on-time performance in 1999 was at Chicago's O'Hare airport, where only 55 percent of the January flights arrived on time. On-Time Statistics page, where there also is information about specific time periods or events, such as Thanksgiving, winter holiday and Presidents Day air travel delays. Labor disputes, including work slowdowns, ripple through the entire air system. So, even if only a regional airline, such as Comair, is striking or slowing down, expect delays or cancellations elsewhere within the carrier system. The Transportation Department issues the Air Travel Consumer Report monthly.