Behind the Byline
A breakdown of how I wrote a data PR story that earns coverage
On Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, ConsumerAffairs published a data story I wrote about the best and worst airports in the U.S. for flight disruptions. Among large airports, Los Angeles International (LAX) ranked best, and Reagan National (DCA) ranked worst.
Within two days of publishing, Yahoo, a Washington, D.C., TV station, and a Disney World fan site had covered it, and more outlets may follow.
Below is a short case study of how that story came together.
The starting point
The ConsumerAffairs Research Team had analyzed Department of Transportation flight data from 2024 to 2025. They scored 122 airports on how severe their disruptions are, how often they happen, and how easily travelers can recover.
It’s a lot of numbers, and my job was to turn them into a story people could use heading into the holidays.
Finding the angle
Reagan National had the highest cancellation rate in the study, at 2.8%. That was the obvious headline, but a more interesting pattern emerged when I studied the five worst large airports. Each one struggled in its own way. Cancellations were the main problem at Reagan National, long delays at Newark, and diversions at Miami.
Since a cancellation and a long delay call for different next steps, I built the story around what each problem means for someone standing at the gate.
With a cancellation, the priority is finding another way to get where you’re going, whether that’s a later flight or a nearby airport. Delays keep changing, so the best move is to track them in real time through the airline’s app. Each airport’s write-up shows which of those problems travelers are most likely to face there, so readers know what to do before they’re stuck at the gate.
People love to complain about LAX, yet it ranked best among large airports. Atlanta, the world’s busiest airport by passenger volume, came in fifth best. Together, those results challenged the assumption that the biggest airports cause the most headaches. So I used them to open the story — size alone doesn’t determine how reliable an airport is.
Making it useful
Numbers only go so far, so I did more research to add context and tapped my network for travel insurance and consumer advocacy experts who could share what travelers should do when a flight falls apart.
Their advice helped me round out the story with practical tips. Those included booking a nonstop flight or an earlier departure, avoiding tight connections at smaller airports, opening the airline app within the first 10 minutes of a disruption, and reviewing a travel insurance policy closely before buying.
I also gave each airport I profiled the same set of stats in the same order, including cancellation rate, delay rates, and the number of backup flights travelers had. That way, readers could compare airports quickly.
Finally, I checked each figure against the research team’s data before it went to my editor. Readers use a story like this to make decisions about their travel and their money, so every number needs to hold up.
What came back
On Friday, Oct. 23, 2026, ConsumerAffairs’ PR team let me know that three pieces have picked up the story:
- A Yahoo contributor wrote a first-person piece making the case that LAX, despite its reputation, is the best large airport in the country for avoiding disruptions, with more backup flights than anywhere else when something goes wrong: “Travelers love to hate my home airport. But a new study just ranked it No. 1 in America”
- A local TV station in Washington, D.C., looked at how the three D.C.-area airports (DCA, Dulles, and BWI) ranked, and highlighted that DCA bucked the trend by performing better over the holidays than the rest of the year: “DCA ranks as worst large U.S. airport for flight disruptions; Dulles also in top 10”
- Disney Dining, a Disney World fan site, showed families how a canceled or delayed flight can wipe out a park day, and why they may want to build in extra time before their trip: “Disney World Vacations at Risk: New Report Reveals Shocking Data on Airport Reliance”
I love seeing how differently each outlet used the same data. Each one found its own reason to care, and that’s what I hope for every time I write a data story.
Have interesting data with no story yet?
Plenty of publications and firms have survey results or research sitting in a spreadsheet. If that’s you, I’d love to help turn it into something people want to read and share!
I work from your data, develop or refine your proposed angle, bring in expert voices, and fact-check every number before it goes out.
Here’s what it’s like to work with me, from the ConsumerAffairs side:
Want to see my approach to producing clear, thoroughly researched E-E-A-T content? Check out my portfolio of YMYL articles I’ve written for prominent publications, including ConsumerAffairs and Insurify, as well as consumer-facing companies like The Alloy Market and OmniWatch.
For partnership inquiries, please email me at [email protected] or connect with me on LinkedIn.