Travelers Delayed by 1,000 Years at One U.S. Airport

They’re boring and, sometimes, a very necessary part of air travel. But an analysis by website FinanceBuzz has laid bare the true cost in time of these airport delays. By analyzing data from the DOT, it pinpointed that a single U.S. airport has delayed departing passengers for well over 1,000 years.

Delays at the point of departure are unfortunate and, to some extent, unavoidable part of air travel. But for those who think of them as a mere nuisance, analysis by FinanceBuzz may make them see differently; according to its findings, there’s one airport in the U.S that has – in a manner of speaking – delayed travelers for 1,000 years.

Explaining its process of analysis, the outlet said, “…when you zoom out and look at the collective impact all these individual delays have on passengers each year, the numbers are staggering. Collectively, passengers are spending hundreds of years waiting out delays in each of the country’s major airports.”

The outlet continued, “FinanceBuzz analyzed data from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to better understand the impact of airport delays on passengers and to help you minimize interruptions to your holiday travel. We took a look at the busiest U.S. airports to see where passengers were spending the most time delayed, waiting for take-off.”

It added, “We looked at total passengers departing from each airport, the percentage of flights delayed, and the average length of the delay to calculate our metric and rank the airports.”

So, who came top of the list according to the analysis by FinanceBuzz?

Chicago O’Hare (ORD), where, in 2018 collectively, passengers spent 1,133 years just waiting around. Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) came second, with passengers logging 991 years in collective idling. In third place came Dallas/Forth Worth International Airport (DTW), where waiting time added up to 872 years.

Commenting on the results of its analysis, the outlet said, “The collective time passengers spend delayed at airports every year is astonishing. Passengers collectively spent hundreds of years delayed last year at each major airport included on our list.”

A full breakdown of the website’s results – along with an insight into the causes of these delays and what passengers can do about them – can be viewed here.

[Featured Image: Wikimedia/ Sahmeditor]