{"chart":{"slug":"flight-delays-by-time-of-day","title":"What time of day are flights most likely to be delayed?","takeaway":"In the 12 months to August 2026, 8.0% of flights scheduled to leave between 6 and 7 a.m. left 15 or more minutes late, against 35.7% of those leaving between 8 and 9 p.m. Delays build through the day as late planes make their next flights late too, so the first flight of the morning is the safest bet. Hours are local time at the departure airport.","topic":"Air travel","chart_type":"bar","ranking":false,"x_label":"Scheduled departure hour (local time)","y_label":"% of flights leaving 15+ minutes late","unit":"percent","points_count":19,"source":{"name":"U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Airline On-Time Performance (Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, 1987–present)","url":"https://www.transtats.bts.gov/DL_SelectFields.aspx?gnoyr_VQ=FGJ\u0026QO_fu146_anzr=b0-gvzr"},"license":{"name":"Public domain (U.S. government work)","url":"https://www.usa.gov/government-copyright"},"data_as_of":"2026-08-31","updated_at":"2026-10-20T16:49:43.851Z","url":"https://chart.ly/charts/flight-delays-by-time-of-day","api_url":"https://chart.ly/api/v1/charts/flight-delays-by-time-of-day","csv_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/flight-delays-by-time-of-day/data.csv","image_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/flight-delays-by-time-of-day/image.png","embed_url":"https://chart.ly/charts/flight-delays-by-time-of-day/embed","credit":"U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Airline On-Time Performance (Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, 1987–present), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/flight-delays-by-time-of-day)","credit_html":"U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Airline On-Time Performance (Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, 1987–present), via \u003ca href=\"https://chart.ly/charts/flight-delays-by-time-of-day\"\u003eChartly\u003c/a\u003e","average_label":null,"zero_axis":true,"data":[{"label":"Before 6 a.m.","value":8.5},{"label":"6 a.m.","value":8.0},{"label":"7 a.m.","value":10.1},{"label":"8 a.m.","value":12.4},{"label":"9 a.m.","value":15.4},{"label":"10 a.m.","value":18.1},{"label":"11 a.m.","value":20.4},{"label":"Noon","value":22.9},{"label":"1 p.m.","value":24.7},{"label":"2 p.m.","value":27.5},{"label":"3 p.m.","value":28.9},{"label":"4 p.m.","value":30.8},{"label":"5 p.m.","value":31.5},{"label":"6 p.m.","value":33.7},{"label":"7 p.m.","value":34.6},{"label":"8 p.m.","value":35.7},{"label":"9 p.m.","value":32.6},{"label":"10 p.m.","value":31.2},{"label":"11 p.m.","value":23.7}],"annotations":[]},"docs":"https://chart.ly/developers","terms":"Free to use with credit: wherever you show or quote a chart's data, name Chartly with a link to that chart's url (each chart's credit line does both) and credit its source as its license asks.","credit":"U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Airline On-Time Performance (Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, 1987–present), via Chartly (https://chart.ly/charts/flight-delays-by-time-of-day)"}