Airports are probably the only places in America where you have to arrive three hours early to depart fours hours behind schedule.

Not surprisingly, passengers treat airports like prisons -- reluctant to enter, dying to exit.

And not all of these transportation hubs are created equal. The big ones -- cycling through hundreds of thousands of visitors each week --well, your flight is but a cipher to one of those. Expect a delay, and don't expect much more than a “Sorry, here are seven peanuts for your trouble.”

Here are the seven most-delayed airports in the U.S. , according to Travel and Leisure.