Hopkins departures were mostly on time in November

If you flew out of Cleveland Hopkins International Airport in November, your flight was probably on time.

• 85% of domestic flights from CLE departed on time in November 2022, per the latest Bureau of Transportation Statistics data.

• That's compared with the national rate of 81%.

The big picture: Nationally, airlines performed admirably throughout autumn 2022, with on-time departure rates at or above 80% from September to November.

• That's up significantly from last summer, when staff shortages and foul weather combined to muck up the complex web that is the air travel system.

Zoom out: Across the cities with Axios Local newsrooms, D.C.'s Dulles International Airport had the best on-time performance in November 2022, at 88%.

• Denver — where brutal storms tend to snarl wintertime operations — had the lowest, at 76%.

Yes, but: This dataset doesn't include last December's meltdown at Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, which led to thousands of cancellations and delays nationwide.

• Expect those delays to show up in the next data release, where they'll almost assuredly drag down the systemwide numbers.
• "Let me be clear: We messed up," Southwest Airlines COO Andrew Watterson said during congressional testimony last week. "In hindsight, we did not have enough winter operational resilience."

Be smart: Because airlines' systems and routes are so interconnected, problems at one airport or in one region tend to cascade nationwide.

The bottom line: Generally speaking, on-time performance tends to dip in the summer (owing to thunderstorms and the vacation rush) and winter (due to blizzards and holiday crowds) and improve in spring and fall.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to remove a reference to the number of cities with Axios Local newsrooms.