Early birds get the worm, and early flights depart on time (usually), according to a new report from the Airlines Reporting Corporation and Expedia. The report also shows that flights booked for later in the day, specifically scheduled after 3 p.m., carry a much higher risk of being delayed or cancelled. Compared with earlier flights, post-3 p.m. trips are an average of 50% more likely to get cut, the ARC report says.
The finding is based on data collected between January and August 2022 by Official Aviation Guide, a travel analytics company. It comes along with many other travel tips included in the ARC/Expedia report. For instance, traveling off-peak can be another way to boost your booking reliability.
Flight delays tended to be shorter, by about 40 minutes on average, in March and April than in the summertime. Fall delays were also shorter than those at summer’s travel peak, according to the OAG data.
Yet …