2022 was not a good year for airlines and passengers. Even Delta Air Lines, the No. 1 carrier in our latest ranking of U.S. carriers, canceled more than triple the number of flights it did in 2021. The main issue: airlines got giddy about travel returning and scheduled way more flights than they and the air travel system overall could handle. Thankfully, they got more realistic in the second half of the year and things generally improved. The best thing you can do as a traveler: build in some buffers, especially if you have to be somewhere for an event you can't miss. Don't fly in the day of a cruise or night before a wedding. Don't cut it close getting to the airport.

-Dawn

edit: added a gift link