Anyone who’s had to travel during the holidays knows how taxing it can be. If you’re driving, the crowded highways and terrible drivers could wear down even the patience of Gandhi. And, if you’re taking to the airports, throngs of stressed travelers and delayed flights likely await. With so many traveling people and the threat of inclement weather, delays can be the biggest obstacle between you and that Thanksgiving turkey.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom — some holidays are much better for traveling than others.
Using data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics for March of 2015 through February 2016, the experts at travel research site WanderBat created a Travel Score to find the best holidays to fly. The Travel Score considers the total number of flights on a given holiday and the percentage of those that were on time. Since getting to your destination on time is more important than total number of domestic flights, flight punctuality was weighted twice as heavily as flight volume. The fewer flights and the higher the percentage of on-time flights, the better.
Though flying anywhere for Thanksgiving gets a bad rap, the actual holiday itself is one of the top five best holidays to travel. Choose the right airline, and it might even be pleasant.
