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Airports Delays: The Good, Bad and Ugly

Before you book your next flight, check out the best and worst list of airport delays.

Amy Farley, senior editor of Travel + Leisure magazine, shared the results of the "America's Best and Worst Airports 2009" listing on "The Early Show" Tuesday.

Farley said unlike year after year of watching delays go up, delays have actually gone down this year.

"We have the economy to thank because there's less flights and less congestion, which means the flights are coming in on time," she said.

The listing, Farley explained, is conducted through statistics distributed by the Bureau of Transportation. She said the magazine compared the percentage of flights that departed more than 15 minutes late from airports around the U.S.:

Worst Airports for Delays 2009
1. Newark (EWR)
2. Chicago (ORD)
3. Miami (MIA)
4. Dallas Ft. Worth (DFW)
4. New York (LGA)
4. New York (JFK)
7. San Francisco (SFO)
8. Washington, D.C. (IAD)
8. Atlanta (ATL)
8. Philadelphia (PHL)

Best Airports for Delays 2009
1. Salt Lake City (SLC)
2. Portland (PDX)
3. Washington, D.C. (DCA)
3. Minneapolis St Paul (MSP)
5. Los Angeles (LAX)
5. San Diego (SAN)
5. Tampa (TPA)
5. Detroit (DTW)
9. Phoenix (PHX)
9. Orlando (MCO)

Farley said travelers should plan their trips according to the lists for a better chance of an on-time flight.

She added passengers should also look at the hour they're traveling. She said the peak time flights are delayed are after 8 p.m.

"If you're flying earlier in the day, you have a better chance of getting out on time. The earlier the better," she said. "I always take the first flight out in the morning."

Farley added airlines have statistics that have the on-time performance of individual flights. You can call the airline when you're making your booking, she said, and find out how your particular flight performs.

However, traffic and weather, Farley said, are big factors in what airport gets on the worst list each year. She used New York as an example:

"We have a lot of flights coming in and there's limited air space. So there's a lot of traffic they have to deal with. A lot of it also is just weather. The summer storms roll in in the afternoon that can really tie up an airport. And then in the winter there's, of course, those blizzards that can tie up things for days on end."

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