June 13--O'Hare International Airport ranked last among major U.S. airports in getting flights out on time in April, according to the latest Transportation Department statistics released Thursday.
The airport had an on-time departure rate of 65.3 percent, far worse than the 84.5 percent in April 2012.
Flights across the country were slowed in April by a furlough of air traffic controllers and strong thunderstorms. American Airlines, the second-largest carrier at O'Hare, also experienced massive delays and cancellations due to a computer outage.
The best on-time departure rates among big airports were at Salt Lake City International, Portland (Ore.) International and Sea-Tac in Seattle.
O'Hare's ranking of on-time arrivals fell to 28th from 8th last April among top airports, with just two in three flights arriving on schedule. Only Newark Liberty in New Jersey, just outside of New York City, was worse at getting flights out on-time among big airports.
O'Hare also accounted for one out of six long delays in April. An All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight bound for Tokyo was stuck for nearly 4 hours on the tarmac before taking off on April 17, a day major thunderstorms passed through Chicago.
Midway was 25th out of 29 big airports in a ranking of on-time departures in April, the same as last year.
It ranked 12th in arrivals among big airports in April, compared with 8th in April 2012.
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