Everyone has a horror story to tell about an airport misadventure – the one time that scores of passengers got stranded overnight in a dirty, mouse infested terminal, or the other time that a flight got canceled and 300 passengers had to wait in line for hours to get flights rebooked. That’s why when you ask any traveler what the worst airport on the planet is, you’re sure to get an impassioned answer.

It’s important to remain objective when analyzing airport performance, however, as with enough queries, anyone can find a single traveler that despises a particular terminal. And that’s why we’ve got the Department of Transportation to crunch numbers for us. The Aviation Consumer Protection Division’s 2009 report just came out this month, detailing the performance of airlines and airports across the country. Lets use their December data to pick out the bad apples.

If you’re looking to arrive on time, Newark (EWR) and Fort Lauderdale (FLL) have the worst scores in the country, with only 61.9 and 64.9 percent of flights arriving on time to each respective airport. Seattle performed best at 82.1, in case you’re wondering.

Traveling during rush hour? If you’re leaving at the most delayed time of the day (between 7 and 8 p.m.,) avoid Chicago’s Midway airport, where a shocking 29.8% of flights leave on time. Newark again scores low with 48.1% of flights leaving on time, while St. Louis isn’t doing much better at 50.1%.

What the ACPD doesn’t analyze in this study is relative quality of the airport. The airport at Deadhorse, Arkansas, for example, can have an excellent on-time performance, but still have an awful, cockroach infested terminal and mean gate agents.

For those sort of data we turn to the public for general voting. And the winner? New York’s John F. Kennedy airport. Situated 45 minutes east of Manhattan in Queens, this popular international airport is famously hated among travelers, many complaining about confusing signs, late flights and dirty terminals.

Luckily, like many airports in the above list, there are often alternatives to the crowded, congested airports. Passengers flying out of JFK or Newark can also consider LaGuardia (LGA), White Plains (HPN) or Islip (ISP), while those out of Chicago can try Milwaukee (MKE). Fort Lauderdale is in the proximity of Palm Beach (PBI) and Miami (MIA) while St. Louis, well, has an excellent train system.

In the worst case, you can use the data to prepare well for your trip. If you know that your airport is going to be congested and maybe dirty, bring extra snack items and sanitizer. Do your homework and prepare for the worst, and with a little luck, you might get the