Carrier performance at one airport
AA→PHL
American Airlines at Philadelphia International
- Departures
- 45,933
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #4 of 10
American Airlines at Philadelphia sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.4%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 45,933 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 6,458 at 82.3% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs half a point behind the 74.9% 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
74.9%
44,696 completed departures
Avg delay
80 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.36%
At PHL, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at PHL
These figures cover 46,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.4% 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 82.3% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 64.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 675 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 6,458 | 82.3% | 87 min | 2.18% | B |
| Republic Airways | 6,948 | 81.1% | 74 min | 3.18% | B− |
| United Airlines | 4,242 | 79.0% | 87 min | 1.27% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 45,933 | 74.9% | 80 min | 2.36% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 16,135 | 74.2% | 91 min | 4.32% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines | 5,065 | 72.9% | 61 min | 1.01% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,587 | 71.8% | 72 min | 4.17% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,575 | 70.7% | 78 min | 2.22% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 9,066 | 68.2% | 85 min | 2.71% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 675 | 64.3% | 56 min | 1.48% | D |
PSA Airlines cancels 4.3% 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 | 3,131 | 77.4% | 91 min | 3.86% | B− |
| PHL to ORD · Chicago | 2,890 | 72.3% | 101 min | 3.88% | C− |
| PHL to CLT · Charlotte | 2,865 | 81.2% | 85 min | 2.58% | B |
| PHL to MCO · Orlando | 2,566 | 72.4% | 76 min | 2.26% | C |
| PHL to MIA · Miami | 2,492 | 78.4% | 88 min | 1.81% | B |
| PHL to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,318 | 78.4% | 66 min | 1.47% | B |
| PHL to PHX · Phoenix | 2,311 | 79.9% | 73 min | 1.77% | B |
| PHL to BOS · Boston | 2,205 | 71.5% | 82 min | 3.08% | C− |
| PHL to TPA · Tampa | 1,648 | 74.3% | 80 min | 2.12% | C |
| PHL to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 1,371 | 76.2% | 74 min | 2.70% | B |
| PHL to PBI · West Palm Beach | 1,272 | 75.1% | 84 min | 2.52% | B |
| PHL to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,271 | 75.4% | 75 min | 1.89% | B |
| PHL to SFO · San Francisco | 1,230 | 74.6% | 72 min | 1.71% | C |
| PHL to AUS · Austin | 1,135 | 76.9% | 88 min | 2.20% | B |
| PHL to RDU · Raleigh | 1,134 | 70.3% | 83 min | 2.20% | C |
| PHL to BNA · Nashville | 1,085 | 71.2% | 88 min | 2.21% | C |
| PHL to SAN · San Diego | 1,046 | 77.7% | 73 min | 1.53% | B |
| PHL to RSW · Fort Myers | 1,043 | 73.4% | 79 min | 2.59% | C |
| PHL to DEN · Denver | 852 | 74.7% | 68 min | 1.76% | C |
| PHL to CHS · Charleston | 795 | 76.5% | 75 min | 1.89% | B |
| PHL to JAX · Jacksonville | 748 | 73.4% | 73 min | 2.27% | C |
| PHL to IAH · Houston | 707 | 72.7% | 88 min | 2.97% | C |
| PHL to SJU · San Juan | 675 | 67.0% | 88 min | 2.07% | C |
| PHL to IND · Indianapolis | 642 | 70.1% | 68 min | 2.02% | C |
| PHL to PIT · Pittsburgh | 639 | 71.4% | 83 min | 2.03% | 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 22 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am4,200 flights88.3%
- 8am–11am11,952 flights82.9%
- 11am–2pm6,443 flights76.3%
- 2pm–5pm8,206 flights68.9%
- 5pm–8pm10,946 flights66.3%
- 8pm–5am4,186 flights69.9%
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 88.3% of the time, against 66.3% for the evening window. That is 22 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.
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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 32%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
44% 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 903,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 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.
Cancellations sit at 2.36% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.33%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 10.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% 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.
45,933 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.
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 25.1% of the 45,933 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% 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 82.3% on time across 6,458 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 64.3%, a gap of 18 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 88.3% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 66.3%, 22 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
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.