Thinking about taking an evening flight for your next trip because you hate getting up for morning flights? Well, you may want to think again because hopping on a later flight could risk you further travel delays, a meteorologist has warned.
Chris Bianchi, a meteorologist at Denver television station 9News, explained “why you should never book a night flight in the U.S. during the summer” in a viral video posted on his TikTok account @weatherchris.
The video – which he shot around 1:45 a.m. in late June in a deserted terminal at New York City’s LaGuardia Airport while waiting for his flight back to Denver – has been viewed over 275,000 times since it was first posted on June 27.
Bianchi said Newsweek: “I booked the flight at the last minute to watch a football game and had the next day off, so I was willing to take a bit of a risk.”
In the video, he warns that afternoon and night flights are at higher risk of delays because in summer the likelihood of thunderstorms occurring somewhere in the country later in the day is “quite high.”
He told Newsweek: “Storms tend to develop in the afternoon and evening and cause a growing backlog (of flights held up because of the weather), which is why delays are more likely to occur in the afternoon than in the morning during the summer.”
@weatherchris on TikTok
The meteorologist’s warning came after a total of 7,791 flights on 10 major U.S. airlines were reportedly affected by “extreme weather delays” in May, according to the latest Air Travel Consumer Report, released by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) in July.
An extreme weather delay is a “significant meteorological condition (actual or forecast) that, in the opinion of the air carrier, delays or prevents the operation of a flight,” the report states.
That same month, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s report found that 46,257 flights experienced “domestic air travel delays,” which refers to delays and cancellations caused by “a wide range of conditions,” including non-extreme weather, airport operations, high traffic volumes, air traffic control and other circumstances.
Jetsetters must expect delays and other flight-related problems, as there are no signs of air traffic slowing down even in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era.
Overall passenger demand rose 9.1 percent in June compared to the same month in 2023, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) reported in July.
“Demand increased across all regions as peak travel season began in the north in June. And with overall capacity growth lagging behind demand, we were able to achieve very strong average load factors (the percentage of available seats an airline sells on its flights) of 85 percent on both domestic and international routes,” IATA Director General Willie Walsh said in the report.
“North American airlines saw demand increase 6.6 percent year-on-year,” the report said. “Capacity increased 8.6 percent year-on-year and load factors were 88.7 percent, the highest among the regions.”
“The one rule you should never break”
Sitting in the terminal at LaGuardia Airport, Bianchi says in the viral clip that his flight was delayed at least three hours, adding: “It’s all my fault because I broke the one rule you should never break: Never book a flight in the afternoon or especially at night during the summer months in the United States.”
The meteorologist explained that, for example, a flight from New York to Miami could come from Chicago, so if there is a thunderstorm there, your flight will be affected.
Bianchi noted, “The probability of having an afternoon or evening thunderstorm somewhere in the United States is quite high during the summer months of May, June, July, August and September.”
“So if you get caught in a thunderstorm in the wrong place and your flight is affected, that could be a real problem for you. There’s a pretty good chance that there will be a delay due to the backlog of those flights,” he added.
He advised passengers to download the apps of flight tracking websites FlightAware and FlightRadar24 to “track your incoming flights and departure locations… check the weather in those locations… because if the weather in those locations is that bad, there’s a pretty good chance your flight will be affected by it.”
If it looks like bad weather is imminent in any of the locations your flight is departing from, Bianchi also recommends booking a “replacement flight” with an airline that offers a full refund, credit or airline miles. That way, you’ll have alternative options in case your afternoon or evening flight is affected by the weather.
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