2 of Florida's airports are named among the 50 most stressful to travel from in the U.S.

• Aspen/Pitkin County Airport ranked as the most stressful U.S. airport with a stress score of 4.95 out of 10.
• Smaller regional airports make up eight of the top ten most stressful airports, despite handling fewer passengers.
• Other airports that make the list include Newark Liberty International, Miami International, Dallas Fort Worth and more.
• Florida has two airports that feature in the top 50 - Key West International and Miami International.
• High cancellation rates and lengthy delays for both arrivals and departures contribute significantly to airport stress scores.

A new research-based interactive tool has identified Aspen/Pitkin County Airport in Colorado as the most stressful airport in the United States, with travelers facing significant delays and high cancellation rates that resulted in a stress score of 4.95 out of 10.

The research analyzed 384 U.S. airports using five key stress factors: passenger numbers, average departure delays, cancellation percentages, arrival delays, and Google ratings. Each factor was weighted equally at 20% to calculate the final stress score.

Aspen/Pitkin County Airport, otherwise known as Sardy Field, tops the list with almost 9% of flights canceled and average departure delays exceeding 45 minutes. The Colorado ski destination airport serves nearly 250,000 passengers every year and scored poorly across all factors.

Watertown International Airport in New York places second with a stress score of 4.68. This small regional airport, serving just under 24,000 passengers yearly, struggles with an 8.8% flight cancellation rate and arrival delays averaging 37.7 minutes.

Maryland's Hagerstown Regional Airport takes third place with a 4.65 stress score. Travelers here face the longest average departure delays of any U.S. airport at a staggering 106.86 minutes – nearly two hours of waiting time before takeoff.

Chippewa Valley Regional Airport in Wisconsin is in fourth place with a 4.49 stress score. While departure delays here average a moderate 25.69 minutes, it's the arrival delays that cause traveler headaches, with planes landing an average of 69.27 minutes behind schedule.

Houghton County Memorial Airport in Michigan secured fifth place with a 4.33 stress score. Serving Michigan's Upper Peninsula, this small airport has a 6.5% cancellation rate with departure delays averaging 39 minutes.

Surprisingly, smaller airports dominated the list of the most stressful airports. Tyler Pounds Regional in Texas (4.31), North Central West Virginia Airport (4.31), and Plattsburgh International in New York (4.28) all ranked highly, in joint sixth and seventh place respectively, despite serving fewer than 120,000 passengers each year.

MidAmerica St. Louis Airport in Illinois ranked eighth with a 4.15 stress score, marked by significant departure delays averaging 48.71 minutes despite handling only 147,421 passengers every year.

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson places ninth with a 4.12 stress score. Serving over 51 million passengers every year, its inclusion is notable as the only major hub among the most stressful airports, though its actual delay times are considerably lower than the regional airports higher on the list.

Rounding out the top ten is Chippewa County International Airport in Michigan with a 4.10 stress score, where the average delay for departures is 59.25 minutes and 43.20 minutes for arrivals.

These findings highlight the airports where flying can be a frustrating, stressful experience. Michigan travelers should remain extra cautious and aim to plan ahead as the state sees the highest number of airports in the top 50 list at 5."

Methodology

This research uses a variety of data to rank each airport in the US based on how stressful it is likely to be. Each airport was given a stress score out of 10 based on the following factors:

• Number of enplanements, sourced from transtats.bts.gov, weighted at 20%
• Average departure delay, sourced from transtats.bts.gov, weighted at 20%
• % of departures canceled, sourced from transtats.bts.gov, weighted at 20%
• Average arrival delay, sourced from transtats.bts.gov, weighted at 20%
• Rating on Google, sourced from google.com, weighted at 20%

Sources

• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_airports_in_the_United_States
• transtats.bts.gov
• google.com