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Dallas airport logs one of the worst flight delay records in America

Passengers at this airport collectively waited more than 800 years for their departing flight in 2018.

Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images

If your upcoming travel plans include a flight out of Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, you might want to charge your electronics and bring a book to read. A new study from personal finance website FinanceBuzz comparing departure delays at the 25 busiest airports in the country ranks DFW among the worst.

We fly high — and not because we're going anywhere quickly — on the list as the No. 3 most time-delayed airport in the country, averaging 67 minutes grounded and a collective passenger wait time of 872 years in 2018, according to the study. Overall, 24 percent of DFW Airport flights were either delayed or canceled last year.

Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), the only other Texas airport in the study, ranks No. 17, with 72-minute delays on average and passengers collectively spending 393 years waiting there to depart in 2018. Eighteen percent of its departing flights were either delayed or canceled last year.

So why all the delays? At DFW, most of the time (34 percent, to be exact) an aircraft is late. The other reasons include National Aviation System delays (29 percent), air carrier delays (21 percent), aircrafts being canceled or diverted (12 percent), and weather (4 percent). National Aviation System delays refer to issues such as "non-extreme weather conditions, airport operations, heavy traffic volume, and air traffic control," while carrier delays are described as being "due to circumstances within the airline's control," according to the study.

At IAH, National Aviation System delays are the biggest culprit at 40 percent, followed by aircrafts arriving late (27 percent), air carrier delay (20 percent), arriving aircraft canceled or delayed (8 percent), and weather (4 percent).

FinanceBuzz collected its data from the U.S. Department of Transportation, which defines a delayed flight as one arriving or departing at least 15 minutes past schedule.

The absolute worst airport for departure delays is Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), with passengers collectively grounded for 1,133 years in 2018, FinanceBuz says. Tampa International Airport (TPA) sits at the bottom of the list with the least time delayed (264 years collectively).

Airline mayhem

Passenger who was duct taped on Milwaukee-to-Dallas flight arrested

Courtesy photo

Duct tape

An unruly man who was duct-taped by fellow passengers on a flight from Milwaukee to Dallas has been charged for assaulting a flight attendant.

According to a release from U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton, Abdul-al-Jabbar Oloruntoba Olaiya, 29, was charged via criminal complaint with interfering with a flight crew by assault or intimidation within the special aircraft jurisdiction of the United States.

Olaiya injured a flight attendant in an attempt to exit the plane mid-air.

According to court documents, on November 19, roughly two hours into the flight from Milwaukee to Dallas, Olaiya became frustrated with the flight attendant as she worked the forward galley.

Witnesses told law enforcement they heard Olaiya say he was “captain of this flight” and needed to “get off the plane.”

He then allegedly charged the flight attendant in an attempt to access the aircraft exit door. The flight attendant, identified in court documents as S.J., used her body to shield the door and was injured in the scuffle.

Other passengers rushed to assist, tackling Olaiya and duct-taping his wrists and ankles, then keeping him subdued for the rest of the flight. With only 30 minutes left, the pilots continued to DFW, calling the tower for priority landing and taxing. The incident made national news.

Once they landed, Olaiya was removed from the plane by officers and taken in for a mental evaluation. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Dallas Field Office and the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport Department of Public Safety conducted the investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Levi Thomas is prosecuting the case.

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