Carrier performance at one airport
AA→PHL
American Airlines at Philadelphia International
- Departures
- 46,337
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #5 of 10
American Airlines at Philadelphia sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 46,337 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 6,461 at 83.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs half a point behind the 75.7% weighted average across all carriers at PHL. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
75.5%
45,111 completed departures
Avg delay
80 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.29%
At PHL, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at PHL
These figures cover 46,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at PHL, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 83.1% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 66.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 705 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 6,461 | 83.1% | 84 min | 2.23% | B |
| Republic Airways | 7,018 | 81.7% | 75 min | 2.95% | B |
| United Airlines | 4,324 | 78.6% | 88 min | 1.20% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 16,653 | 75.6% | 88 min | 4.36% | B− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 46,337 | 75.5% | 80 min | 2.29% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 5,086 | 73.1% | 61 min | 1.06% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,663 | 72.0% | 77 min | 2.22% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,274 | 71.8% | 70 min | 4.57% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 9,148 | 69.4% | 85 min | 2.57% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 705 | 66.2% | 55 min | 1.56% | C |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.6% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from PHL
American Airlines operates 25 routes out of PHL with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHL to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,162 | 77.9% | 92 min | 3.67% | B− |
| PHL to ORD · Chicago | 2,923 | 73.2% | 98 min | 3.90% | C− |
| PHL to CLT · Charlotte | 2,864 | 82.3% | 85 min | 2.55% | B |
| PHL to MCO · Orlando | 2,581 | 73.6% | 77 min | 1.98% | C |
| PHL to MIA · Miami | 2,569 | 78.8% | 87 min | 1.99% | B |
| PHL to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,329 | 78.7% | 71 min | 1.46% | B |
| PHL to PHX · Phoenix | 2,314 | 79.5% | 71 min | 1.77% | B |
| PHL to BOS · Boston | 2,246 | 71.4% | 82 min | 2.89% | C |
| PHL to TPA · Tampa | 1,675 | 74.5% | 79 min | 1.97% | C |
| PHL to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 1,449 | 75.9% | 74 min | 2.62% | B |
| PHL to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,293 | 75.3% | 75 min | 1.78% | B |
| PHL to SFO · San Francisco | 1,288 | 73.7% | 74 min | 1.71% | C |
| PHL to PBI · West Palm Beach | 1,269 | 76.2% | 81 min | 2.29% | B |
| PHL to AUS · Austin | 1,137 | 77.1% | 87 min | 1.85% | B |
| PHL to RDU · Raleigh | 1,105 | 71.3% | 81 min | 2.35% | C |
| PHL to BNA · Nashville | 1,059 | 71.8% | 86 min | 2.46% | C |
| PHL to SAN · San Diego | 1,046 | 78.8% | 70 min | 1.34% | B |
| PHL to RSW · Fort Myers | 1,042 | 73.2% | 85 min | 2.69% | C |
| PHL to DEN · Denver | 877 | 73.3% | 66 min | 1.60% | C |
| PHL to JAX · Jacksonville | 744 | 74.7% | 70 min | 2.02% | C |
| PHL to CHS · Charleston | 735 | 77.1% | 73 min | 1.63% | B |
| PHL to IAH · Houston | 714 | 74.1% | 87 min | 3.08% | C− |
| PHL to SJU · San Juan | 701 | 68.2% | 98 min | 2.00% | C |
| PHL to STL · St. Louis | 633 | 74.4% | 75 min | 1.11% | C |
| PHL to PIT · Pittsburgh | 626 | 74.6% | 88 min | 2.24% | C |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am4,228 flights88.4%
- 8am–11am12,052 flights83.0%
- 11am–2pm6,481 flights76.7%
- 2pm–5pm8,254 flights69.7%
- 5pm–8pm10,784 flights67.6%
- 8pm–5am4,538 flights70.8%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.4% of the time, against 67.6% for the evening window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 12,052 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 64.0% on time, 19 points below April, the best at 82.6%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. August was the busiest month here, with 4,718 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 32%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 888,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 887,876 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.29% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.36%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 10.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
46,337 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 82.6% on time and July 64.0%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 45,111 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at PHL
How often is American Airlines at PHL delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.5% of the 46,337 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at PHL?
Delta Air Lines leads at 83.1% on time across 6,461 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 66.2%, a gap of 17 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on American Airlines at PHL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 67.6%, 21 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on American Airlines at PHL?
July is the weakest month at 64.0% on time, compared with 82.6% in April. Across the year that is 19 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) all carriers
- PHL to DFW route record77.9%
- PHL to ORD route record73.2%
- PHL to CLT route record82.3%
- PHL to MCO route record73.6%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.