Originally Posted by
pinniped
My opinions, based on admittedly varying numbers of anecdotes for each:
- I'd downgrade IAD and ATL to "mixed reliability".
- I'd downgrade MIA and PHL to "often unreliable".
- I'd probably upgrade DEN to "generally reliable", as it handles all but the most brutal winter weather pretty well.
- I don't consider DCA a real hub, but my luck over the years, including three years as a weekly user of it, has been "generally reliable". For my route (DCA-MCI), the biggest enemy was very hot weather. Then our US 737 would take on a smaller fuel load and we'd have to stop for gas somewhere along the way.
LGA and JFK deserve their own awful category.
Not sure why DCA would be reliable but IAD mixed. They both experience essentially the same weather conditions. IAD may be slightly more prone to snow, but it has much more space to deal with other weather problems than DCA. DCA also has much more traffic which would mean slowdowns require longer to 'clean up'. My own experiences put IAD fully in the reliable category.