Houston, plan your turkey flight time accordingly

​​​HOUSTON – One Houston airport is a much better place to fly out of than the other during the always-hectic Thanksgiving travel period, a new report shows.

RewardExpert, a site focused on frequent traveler and credit card rewards programs, just released its 2016 Thanksgiving holiday air travel forecast, which ranked airports, airlines and more.

The study found that Houston’s William P. Hobby Airport was the second-worst airport for delays during Thanksgiving week, with 79.2 percent of flights arriving on time. 

San Francisco’s 75.4 percent on-time arrival rate was the worst of the 44 airports in RewardExpert’s analysis.

The percentages are based on U.S. Department of Transportation data aggregated over the years 2011 to 2015 for the 11-day window on either side of Thanksgiving.

George Bush Intercontinental Airport just missed the top 10, ranking as the 11th-best airport, with 84.5 percent of flights arriving on time.

Flight delays also can be mitigated, the RewardExpert study shows, if travelers are savvy about which days they opt to fly during the Thanksgiving period.

The best day to travel to your Thanksgiving destination this year is Monday, November 21.

The likelihood of delay ratchets up exponentially, however, on Tuesday and Wednesday. But if it’s OK to arrive on the Turkey Day itself, the number of airport delays are at their lowest then.