"Book a flight early in the day—sometimes very early—and you stand a decent chance of getting an on-time arrival. Fly in the afternoon and the odds of a delay increase dramatically. Fly in the evening, after work, and you might as well bring along a copy of the Farmer's Almanac because you're going to have a lot of downtime to fill."
I agree, especially since his theory is solidly backed with "airport by airport snapshots".
However, if you are based in Europe and you have to take international flights, how "early" (date, not just time) would you fly? In my case, it all depends on when (time and date) and where my meeting would be.
My preferences are:
If my meeting is within the EU and is scheduled first thing in the morning, I normally fly on Sunday evening rather than early in the morning. But, it's more of a personal choice rather than a decision based on possible flight delays, etc. I would rather cut my weekend short to fly out on a Sunday so that I could get a good night's sleep than have to wake up at an ungodly hour on a Monday and head straight for a meeting.
If my meeting is scheduled in the afternoon then, I would rather take Joe Brancatelli's advice to fly first thing in the morning in order to avoid getting delayed.
If I have to take an intercontinental flight, I prefer to fly on a weekend and with enough time to get over jetlag.
Of course, all of the above are just my preferences. More often than not, I find myself with just enough time to hail a cab at the airport to take me to my meeting. None of those 'getting over a jetlag' allowance. If I am lucky, I do get enough time to check-in to my hotel and freshen up.
What about you? How do you schedule your flights?
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