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Thanksgiving & Christmas Flight Delays at ATL: Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport

Over the last four Thanksgiving travel weeks (2022–2025, Tuesday before through Sunday after), 18.4% of flights that left Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (Atlanta, GA) arrived at least 15 minutes late and 0.2% were cancelled. In the rest of November the same airport had 13.4% late and 0.8% cancelled, so Thanksgiving week had 5.0 points more late arrivals. The best day was Thanksgiving Day (9.1% late); the worst was Sun after (32.1% late).

18.4%late arrivals, Thanksgiving week

0.2%cancelled, Thanksgiving week

26.1%late arrivals, Dec 20–31

2.6%cancelled, Dec 20–31

Which day of Thanksgiving week is best at ATL?

Day	Flights (4 yrs)	Late (15+ min)	Cancelled	Avg dep. delay (min)
Tue before	3,763	23.0%	0.1%	14.8
Wed before	3,895	11.7%	0.1%	7.3
Thanksgiving Day	2,577	9.1%	0.1%	6.6
Fri after	3,154	10.2%	0.0%	7.7
Sat after	3,799	19.8%	0.5%	13.6
Sun after	3,978	32.1%	0.6%	19.5

Pooled over 2022–2025. Thanksgiving 2026 is Thursday, Nov 26, so the window is Tue Nov 24 – Sun Nov 29. Individual days have fewer flights, so small differences are noise.

Year by year at ATL

Year	Thanksgiving week late	Thanksgiving week cancelled	Rest of Nov. late	Dec 20–31 late	Dec 20–31 cancelled
2022	13.0%	0.1%	14.6%	33.7%	7.2%
2023	14.8%	0.0%	8.7%	15.4%	0.1%
2024	19.4%	0.1%	12.9%	29.0%	0.5%
2025	26.8%	0.9%	17.9%	27.3%	3.1%

Single years can be dominated by one storm or airline meltdown; look at the range, not just the average. Dec 20–31, 2022 includes the late-December 2022 winter storm and airline disruptions nationwide.

Christmas week (Dec 20–31) at ATL

Across 2022–2025, 26.1% of flights from ATL arrived 15+ minutes late and 2.6% were cancelled during Dec 20–31, compared with 17.3% late and 0.6% cancelled from Dec 1–19 (+8.8 pts late arrivals).

Airlines at ATL, Thanksgiving week

Airline (flights it operated)	Flights (4 yrs)	Late	Cancelled	Dec 20–31 late
Delta Air Lines	14,372	16.5%	0.1%	24.0%
Southwest	1,975	18.6%	0.3%	31.1%
Endeavor Air *	1,076	8.3%	0.0%	17.7%
Frontier	949	37.9%	1.6%	50.2%
Spirit	756	35.1%	0.4%	38.5%
SkyWest *	507	20.7%	1.4%	28.0%
American Airlines	456	18.5%	0.2%	25.1%
United Airlines	446	19.4%	0.7%	25.8%
JetBlue	202	31.5%	2.5%	43.5%

* Regional airline that mostly flies under another airline’s brand (for example American Eagle, Delta Connection, United Express), so the ticket you bought may not match the operator. Airlines with fewer than 200 flights in the window are omitted.

Why flights from ATL were late (Thanksgiving week)

Cause category (BTS)	Share of delay minutes
Airline (crew, maintenance, cleaning…)	46.9%
Extreme weather	3.7%
National Aviation System (air traffic, volume)	17.0%
Security	0.4%
Late-arriving aircraft	31.9%

Share of reported delay minutes on flights that arrived 15+ minutes late. “Extreme weather” is only a narrow category; many weather-related delays are counted under National Aviation System or late-arriving aircraft. Categories are assigned by airlines to BTS rules.

Other airports nearby

SAV – Savannah Hilton Head International Airport

Source: BTS Airline On-Time Performance data, flights departing ATL operated by airlines that report to BTS. “Late” = arrived 15 or more minutes after schedule (the DOT definition), counted among flights that were not cancelled or diverted. Computed by Holiday Delay Odds; see methodology.