# Planes now wait 28.8 minutes to take off at JFK, the longest since at least 2018

Published 2026-11-07 · By Pushbuild · Data: [Airline On-Time Performance API – US Flight Delays and Cancellations](https://pushbuild.com/apis/airline-on-time-performance.html)

**28.8**Planes now wait · as of 2026-11-07

**The average taxi-out at JFK was 28.8 minutes in 2025, up from 21.1 in 2021; O'Hare's rose from 20.8 in 2022 to 28.9 so far in 2026.** Atlanta is quickest of the big hubs at 17.0.

JFKORDEWRLGA

“Airline on-time data are reported in 2021 to the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) by the 17 U.S. air carriers that have at least 0.5 percent of total domestic scheduled-service passenger revenues.”

— [Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Airline On-Time Statistics](https://www.transtats.bts.gov/ONTIME/)

| Year | JFK | ORD | EWR | LGA | DCA | DEN | ATL |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 2018 | 27.5 | 22.5 | 23.5 | 26.3 | 19.4 | 17.1 | 17.0 |
| 2019 | 26.2 | 23.3 | 24.9 | 27.1 | 19.5 | 18.0 | 16.5 |
| 2020 | 18.8 | 20.1 | 19.7 | 18.9 | 15.8 | 16.2 | 14.5 |
| 2021 | 21.1 | 20.8 | 21.0 | 18.1 | 17.5 | 16.5 | 15.1 |
| 2022 | 26.2 | 20.8 | 23.8 | 25.0 | 20.7 | 17.1 | 15.4 |
| 2023 | 26.2 | 22.5 | 23.8 | 23.6 | 21.1 | 17.7 | 16.0 |
| 2024 | 26.3 | 23.8 | 24.3 | 23.5 | 20.9 | 18.4 | 16.5 |
| 2025 | 28.8 | 26.0 | 25.9 | 25.9 | 22.0 | 19.9 | 17.0 |
| 2026 | 28.3 | 28.9 | 24.4 | 25.8 | 22.8 | 20.3 | 17.5 |

## Caveats

Minutes from gate to wheels-off, averaged over all departures. Our data starts in 2018. 2026 runs through August.

## Sources

- [Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Airline On-Time Statistics](https://www.transtats.bts.gov/ONTIME/), read through the Pushbuild [Airline On-Time Performance API](https://pushbuild.com/apis/airline-on-time-performance.html) on 2026-11-07

Data as of 2026-11-07. Every figure in this post is in the table above and the CSV below.

Download the data behind this post: [b3-taxi-out-minutes-by-year.csv](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/data/b3-taxi-out-minutes-by-year.csv)

## Get this data

Every number in this post comes from the [Airline On-Time Performance API – US Flight Delays and Cancellations](https://pushbuild.com/apis/airline-on-time-performance.html). $0.0008 per row returned; every key gets $1 of free usage each month.

```
curl -X POST https://api.pushbuild.com/airline-on-time-performance/run \
  -H "X-API-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"carriers": ["DL"], "origins": ["ATL"], "maxItems": 20}'
```

[API docs and key](https://pushbuild.com/apis/airline-on-time-performance.html)[More analysis from this data](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/api/airline-on-time-performance/)Embed this chart

Free to reuse with the credit link. Paste this HTML into your page, or use the [SVG file](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/airport-taxi-out-times-by-year/chart.svg).

Want a table like this in Google Sheets, refreshed on demand? Free script: [copy a web table into Google Sheets](https://pushbuild.com/free/scripts/website-table-to-sheets/).

## Related analysis

-

Flights · 2026-11-07

### [DFW is America's most-delayed big airport: 27.5% of its flights arrive late](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/most-delayed-airports-2025/)

Since January 2025, 27.53% of flights leaving Dallas/Fort Worth arrived 15+ minutes late, the worst of any airport with 20,000+ departures. Chicago…

-

Flights · 2026-11-07

### [The flight that is late 61% of the time: United 1182, Columbus to Chicago](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/most-often-late-flights-2025/)

United 1182 from Columbus to O'Hare arrived 15+ minutes late on 61.2% of its 389 flights since January 2025, averaging 53.9 minutes late. Frontier…

-

Flights · 2026-11-07

### [Airlines reported 20,426 cracks to the FAA since January 2025](https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/faa-service-difficulty-reports-cracks/)

Of 118,407 mechanical-difficulty reports filed since January 2025, 20,426 describe a crack. The parts reported most were fuselage skin (6,782), seat…

Header photo: [Alf van Beem](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:D-AIPZ_Lufthansa_Airbus_A320-211_takeoff_from_Schiphol_runway_36C_pic1.JPG), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

---
As of 2026-11-07. Source: https://pushbuild.com/apis/analysis/airport-taxi-out-times-by-year/