Yampa Valley Regional Airport Director Kevin Booth this week responded to a LendingTree report that found the airport in Hayden took the top spot for tarmac delays.

“I read the article because it popped up in one of my feeds, and so I was disappointed to see us at the top of that list,” Booth said. “I haven’t done anything to validate any of their data, and I’m not sure where they got their data. Do they consider when you push back from the gate and it’s snowing sideways, and we take 45 minutes to de-ice your airplane? Is that a tarmac delay, or is that part of doing business in a winter airport?”

The LendingTree study found that the percentage of regularly scheduled domestic flights that sat on the tarmac for 61 minutes or longer jumped by 19.42% between January and February 2023 and January and February 2024, according to the latest available Bureau of Transportation Statistics data.

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Seven of the top 10 with the highest percentage of flights that spent at least 61 minutes on the tarmac were in Colorado or the New York area. The article, written by Dawn Papandrea, reported the Yampa Valley Regional Airport had 111 planes that waited on the tarmac for more than 61 minutes out of 2,400 scheduled flights, or about 4.6 % of the total number. That compared to the second airport on the list (John F. Kennedy Airport in New York), where 4,624 out of 133,049 (3.48%), and the third airport on the list (Newark Liberty International Airport), where 4,099 out of 151,031 (2.71%) flights waited for more than 61 minutes.

LendingTree researchers analyzed U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics’ domestic tarmac times by year, airport and airline for the report, and specifically examined tarmac delays of 61 minutes or more.

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It compared January and February 2023 versus January and February 2024, as well as full years from 2018 to 2023. The airport and airline analyses are based on 2023 data. The airport analysis focuses on the top 100 airports with the most tarmac delays.

According to information on the Bureau’s website, the tarmac time is any time away from the terminal while passengers are required to be on the aircraft. It should be calculated from the time the aircraft door is locked or unlocked.

Booth said he was surprised Yampa Valley Regional Airport recently added two new de-icing pads to cut down on the time planes have to wait to go through this process.

“We actually doubled our de-icing capacity last winter,” Booth said. “It’s kind of a weird time for them to come out with this statistic, when in fact, we sped up our de-icing by building two new pads in 2023. I didn’t put a lot of credence into (the report), and I think our on-time (percentage) is competitive nationwide.”

Booth said tarmac delays are normally caused by weather or the destination airport. He said there are times when planes push back to leave, but get delayed because they can’t get clearance from where they are headed.

“Many times, a tarmac delay here is caused by the destination airport,” Booth said. “The other one is not knowing whether they include de-icing or not, and assuming that they are, it takes time to de-ice a big airplane.”

He added it’s not uncommon for flights leaving Yampa Valley Regional Airport — one of the closest commercial airports to Denver aside from Colorado Springs — to be asked to wait because they already have other flights in the air that are a priority. The plane will wait on the tarmac until it can be sequenced into Denver.

“We’re a low priority,” Booth said. “They are going to flow other airplanes that have been airborne, coming in from New York or someplace like that because they are already in the air.”

Booth said it’s always important when flying to leave enough time for possible delays, and he recommends at least a 90-minute cushion between connecting flights.

“Because there are delays associated with flying, especially out of this airport, don’t make your connection a 30- or a 45-minute connection in Denver. That way if your airplane is held on the ground here for flow into Denver, you are not white-knuckling all the way there.”

The report includes four Colorado airports in the top 10 list of tarmac delays: Hayden (No. 1), Aspen (No. 5), Colorado Springs (No. 6) and Durango (No. 8). The Steamboat Pilot & Today reached out to LendingTree via phone and email on Monday to clarify if time on the tarmac included de-icing time, but did not hear back.

LendingTree researchers analyzed U.S. Bureau of Transportation statistics for domestic tarmac times by year, airport and airline, and specifically examined tarmac delays of 61 minutes or more. The researchers then compared January and February 2023 versus January and February 2024 (the latest at the time of research), as well as the full years from 2018 to 2023. The airport and airline analyses are based on 2023 data. The airport analysis focuses on the 100 airports with the most tarmac delays, while the airline analysis includes those with available data. The Bureau’s website considers tarmac time as any time away from the terminal while passengers are required to be on the aircraft, calculated from the time the aircraft door is locked or unlocked.

“We have way fewer total delays than a lot of these airports do, and we have way more challenging weather conditions than most of these airports,” Booth said. “It’s not a fair comparison if you’re including de-icing in your tarmac delays.”