These New York-area airports saw the most flight disruptions last month

NEW YORK - With rising fuel prices caused by the U.S. war in Iran and the recent closure of a major airline, tens of thousands of flights have faced cancellations and delays in recent weeks. The New York area has been hit especially hard, with local airports among some of the most heavily affected by the volatility. 

Airports affected by flight disruptions

What we know:

Across the U.S., regular gasoline is averaging more than $4.50 per gallon as of May 4. That's up more than 40% from one year ago, and more than 50% since the war with Iran began in late February, according to the Energy Information Administration.

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The spike in oil prices was one of several reasons Spirit Airlines announced it was permanently ceasing operations earlier this week. Thousands of flights across the U.S. were canceled literally overnight. 

In a statement, the company directly cited "the recent material increase in oil prices" as one of the reasons they had to shut down. Here in New York, Spirit offered flights out of Newark and JFK airports.

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These things, combined with the normal reasons for flight delays, like inclement weather, have made for a major travel headache.

AirHelp, a platform that tries to offer travelers compensation for flight disruptions, looked at the data from last month to see which airports have been the hardest hit.

By the numbers:

Here are the 10 U.S. airports that saw the most flight disruptions in April, according to AirHelp:

Top 10 airports with most flight disruptions

1. O'Hare International Airport (Chicago, IL) — 72.2%
2. San Francisco International Airport (San Francisco, CA) — 71.1%
3. Newark Liberty International Airport (Newark, NJ) — 70.9%
4. George Bush Intercontinental Airport (Houston, TX) — 67.1%
5. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (Fort Lauderdale, FL) — 64.1%
6. New York LaGuardia Airport (East Elmhurst, NY) — 63.2%
7. Washington Dulles International Airport (Dulles, VA) —  62.0%
8. Tampa International Airport (Tampa, FL) — 61.2%
9. Ronald Reagan Washington International Airport (Arlington, VA) — 58.3%

AirHelp's numbers are based on airports with 10,000 or more flights in the month of April, and they define disruptions as "any events that interfere with travel plans." This includes cancellations and delays, but also things like overbooking issues and damaged luggage cases. These disruptions are also not necessarily directly tied to fuel prices or Spirit's closure.

Several of the airports that cracked the top 10 most disrupted airports did not offer Spirit flights, and conversely, some of the airports with the fewest flight disruptions did.

These 10 airports, AirHelp found, had the fewest disruptions in April:

Top 10 airports with fewest flight disruptions

1. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (Baltimore, MD) — 42.4%
2. John F. Kennedy International Airport (Queens, NY) — 44.5%
3. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (Atlanta, GA) — 45.9%
4. Salt Lake City International Airport (Salt Lake City, UT) — 48.4%
5. Nashville International Airport (Nashville, TN) — 49.7%
6. Harry Reid International (Las Vegas, NV) — 50.3%
7. Boston Logan International Airport (Boston, MA) — 51.4%
8. Orlando International Airport (Orlando, FL)— 51.4%
9. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (Austin, TX) — 51.4%
10. Portland International Airport (Portland, OR) — 51.7%