# Travel >> Transportation >> Air Travel

How to Check the On Time Departure Rate Per Flight

Being able to check the on-time departure rate for flights helps you minimize the stress associated with flying. If one flight is late, you could miss your connecting flight and throw off your whole trip. You can avoid choosing flights that are frequently late to help lessen the chance that you will be late to your destination. To check these statistics, you can either locate a copy of the "Airline and Airport On-Time Performance Report" published periodically by FlightStats Analytics or check the FlightStats website.

Instructions

- 1
  Access the FlightStats website. Notice the Interactive Airport Delays Map that shows which airports are experiencing the most delays. As the Delay Index indicates, locations marked with green circles are the airports with the most on-time flights.
- 2
  Select "On-time Performance Rating" from the "Flights" drop-down menu. The page refreshes with an On-time Rating tool, which you can use to find information by route, flight, time/day and airline. If you are in the early stage of planning a trip, search by route to choose the airports and flights with the fewest delays. Search by airline to help narrow your search and avoid airlines with the worst track records. If you already have a flight in mind, search by that flight to see if you really do want to book it. Its on-time departure rate may change your mind. If you simply want to know what time of day and which day of the week is best for traveling without delays, search by time/day.
- 3
  Enter the information in the fields as appropriate. For example, if you decided to search by route, enter the departure airport name or code in the "Departure" field, the arrival airport name or code in the "Arrival" field and the airline name in the optional "Airline" field. If you want to group the results by airline, select the "Group By Airline" check box.
- 4
  Click "Search" to refresh the page with the performance ratings, which are split into two categories: Historical On-time Performance Ratings and On-time Performance Ratings. The first category shows information for the previous three months. Review the on-time departure rates per flight here.
- 5
  Click the "On-time Performance Scorecard" link to display the Departures per Time Period and Arrivals per Time Period tables. These tables show the number of scheduled flights, how many FlightStats Analytics tracked, how many departed or the airline canceled, and the on-time percentage. The table displays the on-time percentage split by time of day and again as a daily average. Click the airplane icon to see which flights relate to the information shown.
- 6
  Scroll down to see the Top 10 Departing Airlines table. Use this information to choose an airline when all other factors are equal.