$16.7 billion: Sky no limit to cost of airline delays on passengers

The next time your flight is late, you'll have 16.7 billion reasons to be angry about it. That's how much it costs us in dollars every year when airlines are tardy, according to a new study.

The National Center of Excellence for Aviation Operations Research (NEXTOR), a group of academics from UC-Berkeley, M.I.T. and other universities, released a report to the FAA detailing how delays drain our collective wallet. We have the key points to save you the pain of reading the 91-page PDF -- and perhaps prevent you from being late.