Smaller Illinois Airport Ranks First For Worst Flight Delays In America

Ah the fun of flight delays.

We've all had to deal with flight delays at some point. It can be chill if that's your only flight but if you have a connection, you're frantically checking the time.

But the most constant flight delay offender isn't that far.

According to Fox32 Chicago, stats from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation (collected by tour operator Exoticca) show that the country's worst airport for flight delays is in Illinois but it isn't O'Hare or Midway.

The stats looked at 7.5 million U.S. flights, including where they were departing from, total minutes of delay, cancelation rates, and their causes.

It's actually the Decatur Airport.

The airport, which does fly into O'Hare (about a 3 hour drive away), was found to have an average of 32.89 minutes of delay per flight in 2024.

Decatur isn't the only Illinois airport with some delays. Rockford's airport made the list too, ranking #19 in delays with an average 25.92 delay minutes per flight last year.

Also in the top 5 airports for delays is Mason City, Iowa in 4th place.

In defense of these airports, I'd bet you can't find an airport in this country that hasn't had delays to some extent.

According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the most frequent reason for delayed flights are weather-related, but delays can also happen because of mechanical issues, air traffic control problems, or (as I've seen multiple times) a previous delay that causes you to now be delayed waiting for the plane.