Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) has some work to do to improve its stress-inducing environment during the peak holiday travel season, a new study has revealed.
European tour company Travel by Luxe compared 30 major airports across several stress-inducing flight factors, such as security wait times, flight delays, cancellation rates, passenger traffic, and average airfare prices to determine the least stressful departure points. The airports were then ranked based on which were the "best equipped to keep travelers calm rather than frazzled."
The No. 1 most stress-free U.S. airport to travel over the holidays is Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in Arizona, the report said.
George Bush Intercontinental was dubbed the 27th "least stressful" American airport with longer security wait times and more flight cancellations than most other major U.S. airports.
According to passenger traffic data from December 2024, more than 2.1 million travelers flew through IAH for the holidays last year. Nearly a quarter of all flights were delayed, and IAH had the fourth-highest rate of cancelled flights (1.18 percent) out of all 30 airports analyzed during the same period.
Average flight costs at IAH came out to $419.19 in the final quarter of 2024, which the report determined was the 11th most expensive airfare out of all 30 U.S. airports analyzed. However, the report states flight fares are not "the biggest drivers of airport stress," but flight delays and security wait times are.
Travelers heading out of Houston should always plan extra time to get through Transportation Security Administration (TSA) lines during peak travel times, as the report found travelers waited about 22 minutes on average to get through IAH security lines in December 2023 (where the latest data was available). That's the fourth-highest wait time nationwide.
The report's author says the 2025 holiday travel season is expected to be one of the busiest on record, and stresses that "choosing the right airport could make or break" a traveler's trip. Nearly 4.6 million travelers are expected to fly through IAH during the final two months of the year.
"Holiday travel is supposed to be joyful. [T]hink of all the twinkling lights, family reunions and much-needed downtime," the author wrote. "But anyone who has battled chaotic airport lines, last-minute cancellations or a departure board full of red delay warnings knows how quickly that festive spirit can evaporate."
Elsewhere in Texas, Austin-Bergstrom International Airport was ranked the 9th most stress-free airport in the U.S. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport was deemed the worst of the airports studied; it ranked at the bottom of the list at No. 30.
The top 10 U.S. airports with the smoothest travel during the 2025 holiday season are:
- No. 1 – Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
- No. 2 – Salt Lake City International Airport
- No. 3 – Washington Dulles International Airport
- No. 4 – Tampa International Airport
- No. 5 – Harry Reid International Airport
- No. 6 – Chicago Midway International Airport
- No. 7 – Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
- No. 8 – Philadelphia International Airport
- No. 9 – Austin-Bergstrom International Airport
- No. 10 – LaGuardia Airport
