State-Level US Flight Delay Aggregates from 2020-2025
How on-time performance, delays, and cancellations vary across U.S. states in the BTS record (2020–2025): the highest-volume states, the best and worst on-time rates, and where cancellations concentrate.
Research period:
Research Question
How do on-time performance, average delay, and cancellation rates differ across U.S. states in the Bureau of Transportation Statistics On-Time Performance record from 2020 to 2025?
Methodology
We aggregated the BTS On-Time Performance monthly records to the state level by summing each state's airport operations (arrivals and departures), delayed flights, and cancellations across 2020–2025, then computed each state's on-time rate, average delay among delayed flights, and cancellation rate. Because a flight is counted at both its origin and destination state, statewide operation totals are larger than the 38.3 million unique flight segments in the national dataset. Figures match the live state pages.
Findings
Texas and California handle the most flight operations
Across the 2020–2025 Bureau of Transportation Statistics record, Texas airports recorded the most activity, about 8.3 million flight operations (arrivals and departures) across 26 reporting airports, at a 79.7% on-time rate. California followed with roughly 8.0 million operations across 23 airports and a stronger 82.3% on-time rate, then Florida (6.9 million operations, 78.2% on-time across 20 airports). Bureau of Transportation Statistics, On-Time Performance, 2020–2025 The next tier, Illinois (4.2M, 80.5%), Georgia (4.0M, 83.6%), Colorado (3.7M, 79.0%), New York (3.7M, 80.5%), and North Carolina (3.3M, 82.1%) - shows how on-time rates can diverge by four to five points even among the busiest states.
When a flight does run late, the average delay also varies by state. New York carries the longest typical delay among the high-volume states at about 81 minutes, ahead of Illinois (77 minutes, anchored by Chicago O'Hare) and Florida (76 minutes). California, despite its volume, posts the shortest of the group at roughly 68 minutes. These averages count only delayed flights, so a state can combine a high on-time rate with a long delay-when-late figure.
The best and worst on-time states
Among states with at least 200,000 operations, the most reliable are Idaho and Utah (both 85.8% on-time), followed by Minnesota (85.4%), Hawaii (85.3%), and Oregon (84.7%) - a mix of inland-West hubs and weather-stable markets. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, On-Time Performance, 2020–2025 At the other end, Puerto Rico has the lowest on-time rate at 75.6%, with Maryland (78.0%), Florida (78.2%), New Jersey (78.2%), and Nevada (78.5%) close behind, congested Northeast and high-volume leisure markets where weather and air-traffic constraints bite hardest.
- Idaho and Utah lead all sizeable states at 85.8% on-time.
- Georgia is the most reliable high-volume state at 83.6%, on the strength of Atlanta.
- Puerto Rico (75.6%) and Maryland (78.0%) sit at the bottom for on-time rate.
- New York has the longest average delay-when-late among big states (~81 minutes).
Where cancellations concentrate
Cancellations track volume and weather exposure. Texas logged the most cancellations in absolute terms, about 106,000 over the period (a 1.29% cancellation rate) - followed by Florida (83,000; 1.21%) and California (72,000; 0.89%). Bureau of Transportation Statistics, On-Time Performance, 2020–2025 By rate, New York is the most cancellation-prone of the large states at 1.58%, reflecting dense Northeast airspace and frequent weather disruption, while California's 0.89% is the lowest among the highest-volume states. For year-by-year and airport-level detail, the individual state and airport pages break these totals down.
On-time rate by high-volume state, 2020–2025
The eight states with the most flight operations
Average delay when late, by state (minutes)
High-volume states; counts delayed flights only
What this analysis cannot tell us
State-level aggregates obscure airport-specific patterns, a single congested hub can dominate a state's numbers. The data covers scheduled domestic flights of BTS-reporting carriers only; general aviation, military, and cargo are excluded. "Average delay" is the average among delayed flights, not across all flights. Operation counts double-count connecting itineraries across two states, and there is a multi-month reporting lag. These figures describe the historical record, not any individual future flight.
Sources
- Bureau of Transportation Statistics, On-Time Performance - transtats.bts.gov/ontime