Holiday travel
Labor Day at MEM
Frederick W. Smith International Airport, Memphis, TN. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against MEM’s own ordinary days of the same weekday in the weeks around each holiday.
The window, year by year
The window runs the Saturday through the Monday, around Labor Day (the first Monday of September). In the data: Sep 2–4, 2023; Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024; Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025. Three windows are in the data: enough to see whether a day repeats, not enough to call it a rule.
Labor Day flights were about as punctual as ordinary days in all three years. The gap ran from 2.1 points below usual in 2024 to 2.4 points above usual in 2023.
1.68% of scheduled departures were cancelled across the Labor Day windows, against 1.23% on ordinary days of the same weekdays. The rate stayed within a quarter point of usual in all three years.
| Year | Departures | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Sep 2–4, 2023 | 171 | 87.6% | 85.2% | +2.4about the same | 0.58% | 1.23% |
| 2024Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024 | 171 | 83.1% | 85.2% | −2.1about the same | 2.34% | 1.23% |
| 2025Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025 | 194 | 87.4% | 85.2% | +2.2about the same | 2.06% | 1.23% |
| All years3 windows | 536 | 86.1% | 85.2% | +0.9about the same | 1.68% | 1.23% |
Day by day
No single day has enough flights in one year to compare the years, so the days are ranked on all three years pooled: the Sunday before Labor Day ran lowest (84.3% on time, about level with usual) and the Saturday before Labor Day highest (88.9%, 3.0 points above usual). This cannot say whether the same day was worst or best in each year.
- Better than usual
- Worse than usual
- About the same
- What ordinary days of the same weekday had
- Lowest to highest single year
- Lighter bars: days just outside the window
Bars show the on-time arrival rate and start at 70%, not zero. A dashed stub is a day with too few flights to print a rate.
| Day | Departures against an ordinary day | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Each year: 2023, 2024, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday beforeoutside the window | 3% fewer | 78.2% | 81.8% | −3.6about the same | 1.90% | — · — · — |
| Friday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 73.6% | 80.0% | −6.4worse | 1.88% | — · — · — |
| Saturday before | 5% fewer | 88.9% | 85.9% | +3.0about the same | 1.29% | — · — · — |
| Sunday before | 22% fewer | 84.3% | 84.5% | −0.2about the same | 2.34% | — · — · — |
| Labor Day | 3% fewer | 85.5% | 85.2% | +0.3about the same | 1.43% | — · — · — |
| Tuesday afteroutside the window | 5% fewer | 90.3% | 89.1% | +1.2about the same | 0.00% | — · — · — |
A dash means fewer than 120 flights stood behind the figure, or behind the ordinary days it would be compared with: too few to print a rate, and nothing is estimated in its place. “Usual” is what ordinary days of the same weekday had at the same place in the weeks around the holiday, weighted by the flights being compared.
Which departure times held up
The busiest days at MEM were Sunday, Sep 3, 2023 (52 departures), Monday, Sep 4, 2023 (68 departures), Sunday, Sep 1, 2024 (56 departures), Monday, Sep 2, 2024 (67 departures), Sunday, Aug 31, 2025 (63 departures), and Monday, Sep 1, 2025 (75 departures).
MEM has too few flights in each departure window to compare them.
| Leaving | On time, whole window | Usual | Gap, points | On time, busiest days | Usual | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 91.0% | 90.8% | +0.2about the same | 88.4% | 91.8% | −3.4about the same |
| 9 AM–12 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 12–3 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 3–6 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 6–9 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 9 PM–5 AM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
MEM beside every covered airport
Storms and outages move whole regions at once. This puts MEM’s year beside the year of all covered airports together, each against its own usual, to show whether MEM did better or worse than the network.
| Year | MEM on time | MEM, gap from usual | All airports on time | All airports, gap from usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Sep 2–4, 2023 | 87.6% | +2.4 | 87.4% | +7.6 |
| 2024Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024 | 83.1% | −2.1 | 82.1% | +2.4 |
| 2025Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025 | 87.4% | +2.2 | 82.2% | +2.5 |
For every holiday at once, see the five holidays at MEM, or the network view.