Carrier performance at one airport
DL→FLL
Delta Air Lines at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
- Departures
- 12,883
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 11
- Rank here
- #2 of 9
Delta Air Lines at Fort Lauderdale lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 12,883 flights, of which United Airlines flew 8,844 at 82.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 5 points ahead of the 71.4% weighted average across all carriers at FLL. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
76.2%
12,569 completed departures
Avg delay
79 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.17%
At FLL, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at FLL
These figures cover 13,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.7% 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 FLL, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 82.1% of the time; Allegiant Air manages 62.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 4,573 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 8,844 | 82.1% | 82 min | 1.12% | B |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 12,883 | 76.2% | 79 min | 2.17% | B |
| American Airlines | 7,467 | 74.5% | 99 min | 2.56% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 11,693 | 72.7% | 55 min | 1.11% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 644 | 69.2% | 55 min | 1.24% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 20,066 | 68.3% | 70 min | 3.49% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 21,594 | 68.2% | 67 min | 2.15% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,881 | 62.7% | 93 min | 3.05% | D− |
| Allegiant Air | 4,573 | 62.5% | 77 min | 0.87% | D+ |
Spirit Airlines cancels 3.5% 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 Delta Air Lines flies from FLL
Delta Air Lines operates 11 routes out of FLL 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLL to ATL · Atlanta | 4,252 | 77.6% | 75 min | 1.65% | B |
| FLL to DTW · Detroit | 1,826 | 78.5% | 79 min | 1.26% | B |
| FLL to JFK · New York | 1,615 | 75.3% | 85 min | 3.72% | B− |
| FLL to LGA · New York | 1,601 | 71.5% | 69 min | 3.94% | C− |
| FLL to BOS · Boston | 882 | 71.3% | 79 min | 3.06% | C− |
| FLL to MSP · Minneapolis | 716 | 82.0% | 81 min | 1.54% | B |
| FLL to CVG · Cincinnati | 531 | 72.1% | 74 min | 1.69% | C |
| FLL to SLC · Salt Lake City | 366 | 77.2% | 92 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| FLL to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 364 | 73.3% | 103 min | 0.82% | C+ |
| FLL to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 364 | 71.5% | 75 min | 1.65% | C |
| FLL to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 363 | 83.5% | 112 min | 1.38% | B |
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 29 points, against 20 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,631 flights91.7%
- 8am–11am1,316 flights83.6%
- 11am–2pm2,788 flights76.5%
- 2pm–5pm2,635 flights71.2%
- 5pm–8pm2,464 flights66.0%
- 8pm–5am1,049 flights62.9%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 62.9% on time, against 91.7% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 67.7% on time, 16 points below September, the best at 83.5%. 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
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% 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 236,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 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 2.17% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.7% 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.
12,883 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. September runs 83.5% on time and July 67.7%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at FLL
How often is Delta Air Lines at FLL 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 23.8% of the 12,883 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 Delta Air Lines at FLL?
United Airlines leads at 82.1% on time across 8,844 flights. Allegiant Air is at the other end on 62.5%, a gap of 20 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 Delta Air Lines at FLL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.7% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 62.9%, 29 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 Delta Air Lines at FLL?
July is the weakest month at 67.7% on time, compared with 83.5% in September. Across the year that is 16 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.