Carrier performance at one airport

AA→PHX

American Airlines at Phoenix Sky Harbor International

Departures: 56,697
Period: September 2025 to August 2026
Routes: 25
Rank here: #7 of 9

American Airlines at Phoenix lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 56,697 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 10,637 at 86.1% on time.

Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs half a point ahead of the 77.9% weighted average across all carriers at PHX. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.

On time

78.5%

55,866 completed departures

Avg delay

71 min

Across delayed flights only

Cancelled

1.13%

At PHX, this carrier only

Rank here

Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at PHX

These figures cover 57,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 6 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.

Against the competition

Every carrier at PHX, ranked

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.1% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 70.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,102 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance of all carriers departing PHX
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Lines	10,637	86.1%	86 min	1.14%	A
Alaska Airlines	5,685	84.9%	54 min	0.62%	B+
Envoy Air	11,150	84.0%	50 min	0.61%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	27,507	80.3%	78 min	0.84%	B+
United Airlines	10,074	80.3%	77 min	0.78%	B+
Frontier Airlines	7,636	78.9%	82 min	1.18%	B
American Airlines (this page)	56,697	78.5%	71 min	1.13%	B
Southwest Airlines	66,973	73.2%	49 min	0.61%	C+
JetBlue Airways	1,102	70.2%	77 min	3.27%	C−

JetBlue Airways cancels 3.3% 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 PHX

American Airlines operates 25 routes out of PHX 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.

American Airlines routes from PHX
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
PHX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	4,607	80.9%	75 min	2.45%	B
PHX to ORD · Chicago	3,063	78.9%	78 min	1.99%	B
PHX to CLT · Charlotte	2,879	87.6%	78 min	1.04%	A
PHX to PHL · Philadelphia	2,308	84.7%	69 min	1.60%	B
PHX to LAX · Los Angeles	2,046	81.7%	63 min	0.54%	B+
PHX to SNA · Santa Ana	1,950	79.2%	66 min	0.41%	B+
PHX to MIA · Miami	1,825	78.0%	62 min	0.93%	B+
PHX to LAS · Las Vegas	1,684	77.4%	73 min	0.95%	B+
PHX to SAN · San Diego	1,664	72.2%	65 min	0.78%	C+
PHX to JFK · New York	1,646	76.6%	76 min	2.55%	B
PHX to SFO · San Francisco	1,312	63.2%	77 min	0.91%	D+
PHX to BOS · Boston	1,308	76.1%	69 min	1.61%	B
PHX to ONT · Ontario	1,305	79.9%	68 min	0.84%	B+
PHX to AUS · Austin	1,224	74.5%	65 min	0.82%	C+
PHX to RNO · Reno	1,099	81.9%	70 min	0.73%	B+
PHX to DCA · Washington	1,086	82.0%	63 min	1.47%	B
PHX to EWR · Newark	1,003	76.7%	67 min	2.69%	B
PHX to SAT · San Antonio	989	80.1%	76 min	0.61%	B+
PHX to DEN · Denver	987	74.9%	75 min	0.81%	C+
PHX to SMF · Sacramento	983	81.8%	75 min	0.51%	B+
PHX to PDX · Portland	866	75.5%	69 min	0.58%	B+
PHX to FAT · Fresno	794	78.9%	80 min	0.76%	B+
PHX to MCO · Orlando	792	71.7%	57 min	0.63%	C+
PHX to TPA · Tampa	729	76.7%	52 min	0.55%	B+
PHX to PSP · Palm Springs	707	80.2%	72 min	0.85%	B+

Flight by flight

American Airlines flight numbers from PHX

9 American Airlines flight numbers leaving PHX 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 16 points between the best and worst carrier.

5am–8am4,833 flights91.7%
8am–11am15,988 flights82.0%
11am–2pm9,650 flights78.2%
2pm–5pm10,672 flights72.5%
5pm–8pm6,809 flights72.1%
8pm–5am8,745 flights77.4%

Scale runs 65% to 95%.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.7% of the time, against 72.1% 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 15,988 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

Seasonal pattern

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.February best, July worst

July is the worst month at 66.9% on time, 18 points below February, the best at 84.9%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 5,301 flights.

Delay causes

What holds this operation up

Late-arriving aircraft
48%
Carrier
33%
National Airspace System
16%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

48% 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 25 to one. The split is drawn from 855,606 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.13% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.33%.

7.7% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

56,697 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. February runs 84.9% on time and July 66.9%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 55,866 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

American Airlines at PHX

How often is American Airlines at PHX delayed?

About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.5% of the 56,697 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 PHX?

Delta Air Lines leads at 86.1% on time across 10,637 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 70.2%, a gap of 16 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 PHX?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 72.1%, 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 PHX?

July is the weakest month at 66.9% on time, compared with 84.9% in February. Across the year that is 18 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated 22 October 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures