Analysis: Sea-Tac Airport ranks in top 10 for on-time flights

Even as Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (Sea-Tac) grinds through a record number of passengers, the airport made the top 10 in on-time flights, according to a new study.

SmartAdvisor, a website that offers financial advice and information, reports Sea-Tac Airport was 6th on the list, with 86% of flights being on time. Delays fell slightly from two years earlier when one out of every five planes took off late.

Sea-Tac Airport is the 12th busiest commercial service airport in the U.S. and the 16th in the world, according to the Airports Council International (ACI), an organization that “represents the collective interests of airports around the world.” It had 401,351 takeoffs and landings in 2022. That’s an increase of 7.2% from 2021.

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In 2022, the airport had 45,964,321 passengers. That’s up 27% from the previous year.

Writing for the World Economic Forum, Statista journalist Felix Richter noted in late 2022 that after the COVID-19 pandemic halted international travel in 2020, “2021 was still mired by travel restrictions, turbulence gradually eased in 2022 as more and more passengers returned to the skies.” ACI notes in its most recent quarterly assessment analyzing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on air travel the current projection of global passenger volume in 2023 is approximately 8.6 billion passengers, which is 94.2% of the 2019 level. ACI projects a milestone for global passenger traffic recovery as it is set to hit 9.4 billion passengers, surpassing the year 2019 which saw 9.2 billion passengers.

Sea-Tac Airport is one of the most space-constrained airports in the U.S., compared to the number of passengers it serves annually.

#UpgradeSEA continues its work to improve the passenger journey at the airport. Read about the projects helping us get there and about exciting C Concourse Expansion milestones. https://t.co/LD6KBW4vCG Stay tuned this week for more #UpgradeSEA updates! 📅 pic.twitter.com/OMyGSJuVxd

— Seattle-Tacoma Intl. Airport (@flySEA) September 25, 2023

Sea-Tac Airport continues to renovate in an attempt to handle the increasing passenger load. Preparation is underway for the C Concourse expansion in 2024. This project is adding four additional floors to the existing three-story building.

Despite the rough winter weather, Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport took the top spot, with almost 9-out-of-10 flights (89%) leaving at their scheduled times. That was an improvement from a year earlier when 80.29% of flights took off on time.

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This study ranked 30 major airports based on their rate of on-time flights during the month of May 2023. Flights were considered to be not on time if there was a delay of 15 minutes or more. Data came from the federal Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

Of the 30 airports studied, Houston came in dead last. Only 7 out of 10 flights were on time there.

Another aspect that was studied was the average price of a ticket coming out of the individual airports. Passengers paid an average of $373 for their tickets out of SEA.

Flights are the most expensive out of Dulles International Airport in the Washington D.C.-area The average cost of a domestic ticket leaving the Virginia airport was $487 in May 2023. That’s nearly $33 more expensive than flying domestically out of the next costliest airport: Minneapolis–Saint Paul.