Are you flying this Thanksgiving? Here are a few tips to beat the holiday rush at the airports.
Tags: Instalocate, Travel, Travel Tips, Thanksgiving, Airports

We all are extremely excited about Thanksgiving — Be it visiting your Grandma’s for dinner or going somewhere exotic to celebrate the occasion. But what can kill this excitement is long security queues at the airport, canceled flights and waiting at the airport for hours for your flight to take off.

At Instalocate, we analyzed the last year's Thanksgiving travel data. Based on which we have come with some recommendations which will help you plan your travel better. Check out a few tips below that will help you reach your destination without any disruption:

Pick the right days to travel

Our analysis of flight data from Thanksgiving holiday ( Nov 16- Nov 26, 2018) showed that the worst days to travel were November 16, 2018, and Nov 26, 2018, namely the Sunday before Thanksgiving and the Monday post-Thanksgiving. Only 69% of flights were on-time during this time. If you don’t want to spend your Thanksgiving being stuck at the airport, we recommend avoiding these days.

2. Book your ticket on the airline with the best on-time performance.

Source: Instalocate Travel Intelligence

There are certain airlines that are more equipped to handle holiday traffic because of better staffing, better aircraft, and of course better processes. If you pick the right airline, you have a better chance of avoiding delays and cancellations. In the hassle of finding the cheapest ticket, we tend to look over the on-time performance of the airlines. As a result, we end up getting delayed. When we looked at the data from last year’s Thanksgiving travel, we found that Spirit airlines were the most on-time airline. This airline showed an on-time performance of 88% as compared to American airlines which showed an on-time performance of 86.70% and Delta which showed an on-time performance of 86%.

In order to reach on time, picking the best airlines becomes important. Check out Instalocate’s recommendations of airlines for your Thanksgiving travel.

3. Travel from an airport which has a history for handling Thanksgiving rush

Not just the airline but the choice of an airport can impact your air travel. Before booking your travel tickets, please check the on-time performance of the airport. It will save you a lot of time and make your journey hassle-free without any delay.

We analyzed the on-time performance of the top 100 airports in the USA during Thanksgiving of 2018 (Nov 16 to Nov 28, 2018 time period). Hawaii’s Honolulu International Airport topped the list with an on-time performance of 92.3%. Baltimore/Wash International Thurgood Marshall Airport grabbed the tenth spot on the list with an on-time performance of 85.3%. Check the complete list of all the Top Airports which managed the holiday traffic pretty well at the last Thanksgiving.

3. Avoid the worst-performing airports which can’t handle a large number of people and flights

Avoiding worst-performing airports can save you from the delayed flights and you will reach your family just on time.

Tennessee’s Memphis International Airport is on top of the list of the worst airports with a very poor on-time performance of just 60.1%. New York’s oldest airport LaGuardia Airport is also amongst the airports with low on-time performance. Check out the complete list of airports to avoid before booking your travel.

Instalocate wishes you a very happy Thanksgiving and safe travel!