Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport has one of the best on time records in the United States, according to recent data compiled by the travel search engine Kayak.
About 16% of flights were delayed at the airport, with a delay time of 22 minutes in 2024.
Summer is the busiest travel time of the year besides holidays, according to Kayla DeLoache, a consumer travel trends expert for the travel comparison website. She said July is when planes are most likely to be delayed.
“There are some things travelers can do to kind of help ease the pain there,” she said. “If you can get out early, even 12 p.m. and earlier, you'll have a better chance of being on time than later in the daytime frame.”
Nationwide, DeLoache said flights leaving between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. have an over 40% chance of being delayed. Nearly 3 million passengers flew into Anchorage International in 2024, according to the airport's passenger activity data. Over 100,000 cargo and passenger planes landed at the airport, which is the largest in Alaska, in FY 2024, according to landing activity data from the airport.
Anchorage International is among the top five busiest airports in the world for cargo. The airport recently added a handful of new cargo air carriers to expand capacity. And at the end of June, WestJet, an international airline, will offer direct flights to Calgrary, Alberta, Canada for the company’s first time.
Travelers coming to Anchorage often have flight connections through the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, where the average delay time was seven minutes longer, according to the data. Twice the number of flights leaving Seattle were delayed compared to the Anchorage airport, according to the report.
DeLoache said the longer delays are likely tied to Sea-Tac’s abundance of passenger traffic, which recorded nearly 53 million passengers in 2024. But comparatively, Anchorage saw more flight cancellations.
“I would definitely say weather is likely playing a factor, especially when it's a cancellation versus a delay,” she said.
In general, DeLoache said the busier the airport, the more likely it is to have delays.
Anchorage International Airport ranked tenth among most punctual airports in the country while Seattle-Tacoma ranked 89th.
