Most disrupted Christmas flights revealed

Travel disruption of one kind or another is almost a given during the hectic holiday season, with the ever-present threat of wintry weather and air terminals bursting at the seams.

 Air passenger rights company AirHelp is arming travelers with the information to help avoid or at least plan ahead for holiday hassles at the airport.

The company has revealed which are the most popular routes, the most disrupted routes and the worst day to take to the skies this holiday season.

AirHelp crunched the numbers from last year, revealing 83,000 flights experienced disruption during Christmas week last year, from December 21, 2017 -January 2, 2018.

About 7.9 million passengers were disrupted last year when visiting family and friends for the holidays.

The most disrupted route of all was New York LaGuardia Airport to Toronto Pearson.

In fact Toronto featured in the top three most disrupted routes, with flights from Chicago O’Hare and Newark to Toronto Bishop Billy City Airport the next most delayed routes.

The Toronto-Boston segment came in at no 5.

Based on last year’s data the worst day to fly is the Friday before Christmas.

AirHelp says the most popular holiday routes are between San Francisco and Los Angeles and transcontinental flights connecting New York’s JFK with LAX.

Under European Law a total of $6.3 million was paid out in compensation last year due to canceled and delayed flights departing from an EU airport.

AirHelp helps passengers including US nationals, claim up to $700 for lengthy delays of more than three hours.