Airport Woes

Dallas airport grounded by new ranking of worst flight cancellations in U.S.

Woman at airport watching an airplane take off

Here's hoping you make it off the ground.

Photo by VichienPetchmai/Getty Images

Dallas may be one of the best travel destinations in the country, but chances are you're thinking of skipping town for spring break or summer vacation. Bad news: your flight might not make it out of the airport.

Travel website InsureMyTrip recently gathered data from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which tracks the on-time performance of domestic flights operated by large air carriers, and determined which airports are most likely to experience flight cancellations.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport actually doesn't fare too poorly, coming in No. 17 out of 25. In 2017, DFW canceled 1,868 of its 181,208 flights, resulting in a 1.03 percent no-fly rate.

Houston's George Bush Intercontinental, however, places a shameful second, edged out only by New York's LaGuardia Airport.

IAH actually operates the third-most flights total in the top 10 (129,271), but in 2017 a whopping 3,529 of them were canceled. But keep in mind that 2017 was the year of Hurricane Harvey, and the airport was closed due to flooding. According to the Houston Airport System, approximately 74 percent of the year's total canceled flights occurred between August 26 and September 5. When you take that into consideration, only 925 flights the rest of the year were canceled.

The Texas numbers all look pretty large when compared to Salt Lake City International Airport's desirable "last place" finish, however. Of its 111,912 flights, a mere 448 (or 0.4 percent) of them never made it to take-off.

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Giving Back

21 North Texas museums offer free admission to military families this summer

Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum presents Rise Up

Photo courtesy of Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum

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Nearly two dozen Dallas-Fort Worth museums are honoring active duty military personnel and their families with free admission through the Blue Star Museums initiative, May 20-September 4, 2023.

Established by the National Endowment for the Arts, Blue Star Families, and the U.S. Department of Defense, the Blue Star Museums program annually provides military families free access to 2,000 museums nationwide throughout the summer. The program begins yearly on Armed Forces Day in May and ends on Labor Day.

Free admission is extended to personnel currently serving in the U.S Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard (including those in the Reserve), and all National Guardsman. Members of the U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps and NOAA Commissioned Corps are also included in the program.

Those who qualify can use their military ID to bring up to five family members - including relatives of those currently deployed. More information about qualifications can be found here.

There is no limit on the number of participating museums that qualifying families may visit. Admission for non-active military veterans, however, is not included.

According to the National Endowment for the Arts website, the initiative was created to help "improve the quality of life for active duty military families" with a specific focus on children. The site states 2 million have had a parent deployed since 2001.

"Blue Star Museums was created to show support for military families who have faced multiple deployments and the challenges of reintegration," the organizers say. "This program offers these families a chance to visit museums this summer when many will have limited resources and limited time to be together."

In Dallas-Fort Worth, participating institutions include well-known art, science, and history museums, as well as smaller museums outside the city limits. Here's a look at all the museums in North Texas that are participating in the Blue Star Museums initiative this year.

In Dallas:

In Fort Worth:

In Garland: