Heading into the busy holiday travel season, new data compiled by NBC News shows that Dallas Love Field is the sixth-worst airport in the nation when it comes to late departures and arrivals.
The study covered flights from January through July this year and found that Love Field saw 10,165 (25 percent) late departures, and planes leaving Love Field were responsible for 9,907 (24 percent) late arrivals at other airports.
"I've been delayed as much as two hours before flying out, and coming back as much as an hour. Now, it's been a while since that's happened to me, but it has happened," said Dolores Floyd, of San Antonio, during one of her frequent trips to Carrollton via Love Field.
But other passengers were surprised by the data.
"We were early going and coming back, so we haven't experienced that at all," Geri Medlin, of Arlington, said. "It kind of surprises me. I guess because we haven't experienced that."
Chris Agundes was visiting Frisco from San Diego and said he's never had an issue at Love Field.
"They've always been on time when I've flown, so my experiences have been good here," Agundes said.
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Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport ranked 16th in delayed departures and eighth in flights landing late at other airports.
Researchers used a standard of 15 minutes to determine a delay.
"I think they need to revisit the idea, [and] they need to sit back and realize that they need to move up and compare themselves to others so they can be up to speed with everyone else," Floyd said.
The worst airport for delays was Los Angeles International Airport, with Newark Liberty International Airport rated the worst for outbound flights landing late at other airports.
Southwest Airlines, which operates a majority of the flights at Love Field, issued a statement:
"Dallas Love Field (DAL) is our home airport, and we take great pride in operating up to 180 departures per day to 56 destinations. Southwest now operates a larger flight schedule at DAL than ever in our 46 year history, and DAL is our seventh busiest airport based upon daily departures. With the growth to 56 destinations served from DAL, we are also more exposed to delay programs at other major airports which can impact our ontime performance locally. At Southwest, our goal is to offer safe, reliable flight schedules at every airport we serve, and we are continuously reviewing our on-time performance and making schedule and operational adjustments to meet our Customers’ expectations for our dependable Southwest Hospitality."
