WASHINGTON — For travelers, it’s practically par for the course these days. You get to the airport only to find out that your flight has been delayed. A new report says that passengers are losing $3.8 billion in lost time -- and some of the offending airports are in our backyard.
Baltimore-Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport and Reagan National Airport are among the top 25 airports where flights are delayed the most. That’s according to this new report by website FinanceBuzz. It analyzed 2018 flight records from the U.S. Department of Transportation and calculated where passengers were stuck the most often.
Reagan National Airport ranks 22 on the list. Twenty-one percent of flights were delayed or canceled. BWI -- the busiest airport in our region -- takes the 20th spot with 24 percent of all flights behind schedule.
The report comes after a summer of wild weather on the East Coast sending travelers like Chris Ayers back home instead of Ohio for a wedding.
"This is the first time I’ve ever flown out of any D.C. airport and gone home in defeat saying I guess I’ll have to try again tomorrow," Ayers said.
The report said congestion in the national airspace system causes the most delays. Airline issues such as maintenance or crew problems were another large cause of delays. The report said that 31 percent of flights departing Reagan National Airport were late because that plane didn't arrive on time.
"There’s nothing else I can do at this point besides go home and try again," Ayers said.
The report said that passengers should just get used to delays. Airports aren't accepting the blame, insisting it's trying to make the experience better for passengers. Reagan National Airport is in a going through a billion-dollar expansion including 14 new gates.