Holiday travel
Memorial Day at OAK
Oakland International Airport, Oakland, CA. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against OAK’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 Memorial Day (the last Monday of May). In the data: May 25–27, 2024; May 24–26, 2025; May 23–25, 2026. Three windows are in the data: enough to see whether a day repeats, not enough to call it a rule.
Compared with ordinary days, Memorial Day flights were better in two and about the same in one of the three years. The gap ran from 3.5 points above usual in 2026 to 9.8 points above usual in 2024.
0.36% of scheduled departures were cancelled across the Memorial Day windows, against 0.38% on ordinary days of the same weekdays. It was lower in one of the three years.
| Year | Departures | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024May 25–27, 2024 | 318 | 88.3% | 78.5% | +9.8better | 0.63% | 0.39% |
| 2025May 24–26, 2025 | 282 | 85.4% | 78.7% | +6.7better | 0.00% | 0.38% |
| 2026May 23–25, 2026 | 242 | 82.2% | 78.7% | +3.5about the same | 0.41% | 0.38% |
| All years3 windows | 842 | 85.5% | 78.6% | +6.9better | 0.36% | 0.38% |
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: Memorial Day ran lowest (82.8% on time, 6.4 points above usual) and the Saturday before Memorial Day highest (89.1%, 3.4 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: 2024, 2025, 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 78.0% | 76.6% | +1.4about the same | 0.30% | 87.3 · — · — |
| Friday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 75.9% | 76.3% | −0.4about the same | 1.18% | 82.2 · — · — |
| Saturday before | about the same | 89.1% | 85.7% | +3.4about the same | 0.42% | — · — · — |
| Sunday before | 20% fewer | 85.9% | 75.1% | +10.8better | 0.00% | — · — · — |
| Memorial Day | about the same | 82.8% | 76.4% | +6.4better | 0.59% | 87.6 · — · — |
| Tuesday afteroutside the window | about the same | 80.9% | 83.9% | −3.0about the same | 0.35% | — · — · — |
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 OAK were Sunday, May 26, 2024 (101 departures), Monday, May 27, 2024 (130 departures), Sunday, May 25, 2025 (84 departures), Monday, May 26, 2025 (117 departures), Sunday, May 24, 2026 (78 departures), and Monday, May 25, 2026 (93 departures).
Across the whole window, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 95.4%, 3.4 points above usual for that time of day. Those leaving 6–9 PM had the lowest: 76.0%, still 11.5 points above usual for that time of day.
The holiday helped flights leaving 3–6 PM the most (11.6 points above usual for that time of day) and those leaving 5–9 AM the least (3.4 points above).
On each year’s two busiest days, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 95.9%, 3.9 points above usual for that time of day. Those leaving 12–3 PM had the lowest: 83.9%, still 9.7 points above usual for that time of day.
The holiday helped flights leaving 12–3 PM the most (9.7 points above usual for that time of day) and those leaving 5–9 AM the least (3.9 points above).
| Leaving | On time, whole window | Usual | Gap, points | On time, busiest days | Usual | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 95.4% | 92.0% | +3.4better | 95.9% | 92.0% | +3.9better |
| 9 AM–12 PM | 91.4% | 85.6% | +5.8better | — | — | — |
| 12–3 PM | 82.9% | 77.8% | +5.1about the same | 83.9% | 74.2% | +9.7better |
| 3–6 PM | 80.3% | 68.7% | +11.6better | — | — | — |
| 6–9 PM | 76.0% | 64.5% | +11.5better | — | — | — |
| 9 PM–5 AM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
OAK beside every covered airport
Storms and outages move whole regions at once. This puts OAK’s year beside the year of all covered airports together, each against its own usual, to show whether OAK did better or worse than the network.
| Year | OAK on time | OAK, gap from usual | All airports on time | All airports, gap from usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024May 25–27, 2024 | 88.3% | +9.8 | 72.7% | −2.3 |
| 2025May 24–26, 2025 | 85.4% | +6.7 | 76.4% | +1.4 |
| 2026May 23–25, 2026 | 82.2% | +3.5 | 75.0% | 0.0 |
For every holiday at once, see the five holidays at OAK, or the network view.