Carrier performance at one airport
AA→PHL
American Airlines at Philadelphia International
- Departures
- 46,621
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #4 of 10
American Airlines at Philadelphia lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 46,621 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 6,525 at 82.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs about a point ahead of the 75.3% 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
76.1%
45,303 completed departures
Avg delay
79 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.47%
At PHL, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at PHL
These figures cover 47,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at PHL, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 82.2% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 67.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 768 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 6,525 | 82.2% | 91 min | 2.70% | B |
| Republic Airways | 6,782 | 82.2% | 78 min | 3.18% | B− |
| United Airlines | 4,503 | 76.6% | 94 min | 1.29% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 46,621 | 76.1% | 79 min | 2.47% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,658 | 74.2% | 69 min | 5.67% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 18,372 | 73.6% | 88 min | 5.53% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,781 | 71.5% | 79 min | 3.65% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines | 5,129 | 71.4% | 63 min | 1.46% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 9,389 | 67.7% | 85 min | 2.93% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 768 | 67.3% | 60 min | 1.56% | C |
Spirit Airlines cancels 5.7% 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 | 3,189 | 79.2% | 93 min | 3.39% | B− |
| PHL to ORD · Chicago | 3,007 | 74.8% | 99 min | 4.49% | C− |
| PHL to CLT · Charlotte | 2,876 | 82.2% | 82 min | 2.68% | B |
| PHL to MIA · Miami | 2,724 | 78.7% | 79 min | 2.79% | B |
| PHL to MCO · Orlando | 2,626 | 74.8% | 77 min | 2.32% | C |
| PHL to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,335 | 78.4% | 70 min | 1.58% | B |
| PHL to PHX · Phoenix | 2,306 | 80.4% | 69 min | 1.69% | B |
| PHL to BOS · Boston | 2,289 | 70.6% | 84 min | 2.84% | C |
| PHL to TPA · Tampa | 1,713 | 73.7% | 80 min | 2.39% | C |
| PHL to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 1,628 | 75.4% | 78 min | 2.70% | B |
| PHL to SFO · San Francisco | 1,335 | 73.2% | 80 min | 1.65% | C |
| PHL to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,294 | 76.1% | 74 min | 1.39% | B |
| PHL to PBI · West Palm Beach | 1,178 | 78.0% | 75 min | 2.29% | B |
| PHL to AUS · Austin | 1,102 | 75.9% | 84 min | 1.81% | B |
| PHL to RDU · Raleigh | 1,069 | 74.0% | 81 min | 2.25% | C |
| PHL to RSW · Fort Myers | 1,062 | 74.1% | 85 min | 2.35% | C |
| PHL to SAN · San Diego | 1,047 | 78.5% | 70 min | 1.53% | B |
| PHL to BNA · Nashville | 992 | 70.5% | 83 min | 2.82% | C |
| PHL to DEN · Denver | 926 | 74.0% | 66 min | 2.05% | C |
| PHL to JAX · Jacksonville | 777 | 74.4% | 73 min | 1.80% | C |
| PHL to SJU · San Juan | 763 | 71.4% | 77 min | 1.97% | C |
| PHL to IAH · Houston | 724 | 78.1% | 86 min | 3.18% | B− |
| PHL to MSY · New Orleans | 687 | 79.2% | 77 min | 2.04% | B |
| PHL to CHS · Charleston | 683 | 77.3% | 67 min | 1.46% | B |
| PHL to ATL · Atlanta | 679 | 66.1% | 75 min | 2.65% | C |
Flight by flight
American Airlines flight numbers from PHL
4 American Airlines flight numbers leaving PHL flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
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 20 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am4,257 flights88.9%
- 8am–11am12,079 flights83.0%
- 11am–2pm6,701 flights76.7%
- 2pm–5pm8,210 flights70.2%
- 5pm–8pm10,201 flights68.9%
- 8pm–5am5,173 flights71.5%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.9% of the time, against 68.9% for the evening window. That is 20 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 12,079 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 68.4% on time, 14 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. July was the busiest month here, with 4,866 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 6%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. Across 856,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 856,297 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.47% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.36%.
9.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
46,621 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 68.4%, a swing of 14 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 45,303 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 arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.9% of the 46,621 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% 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 82.2% on time across 6,525 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 67.3%, a gap of 15 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 88.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.9%, 20 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 68.4% on time, compared with 82.6% in April. Across the year that is 14 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
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.