Carrier performance at one airport
DL→PHX
Delta Air Lines at Phoenix Sky Harbor International
- Departures
- 10,668
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 8
- Rank here
- #1 of 9
Delta Air Lines at Phoenix earns a A. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 9 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs an hour and a half. That rests on 10,668 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 10,668 at 86.9% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 8 points ahead of the 78.8% 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.
Key figures
On time
86.9%
10,531 completed departures
Avg delay
86 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.03%
At PHX, this carrier only
Rank here
#1
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at PHX
These figures cover 11,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 11 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 86.9% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 70.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,109 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 10,668 | 86.9% | 86 min | 1.03% | A |
| Alaska Airlines | 5,599 | 85.4% | 56 min | 0.70% | A+ |
| Envoy Air | 10,353 | 85.2% | 49 min | 0.67% | A+ |
| United Airlines | 10,125 | 81.3% | 76 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 27,209 | 81.0% | 78 min | 0.81% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 7,587 | 79.5% | 84 min | 1.17% | B |
| American Airlines | 56,384 | 79.2% | 71 min | 1.15% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 67,535 | 74.4% | 49 min | 0.62% | C+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,109 | 70.8% | 72 min | 2.52% | C |
The spread between Delta and JetBlue is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Where Delta Air Lines flies from PHX
Delta Air Lines operates 8 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.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHX to ATL · Atlanta | 2,303 | 87.0% | 97 min | 0.91% | A+ |
| PHX to MSP · Minneapolis | 2,073 | 86.2% | 85 min | 0.68% | A+ |
| PHX to SEA · Seattle | 1,764 | 87.8% | 73 min | 0.85% | A+ |
| PHX to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,708 | 90.4% | 75 min | 0.59% | A+ |
| PHX to DTW · Detroit | 1,331 | 84.3% | 82 min | 0.68% | B+ |
| PHX to JFK · New York | 917 | 87.0% | 84 min | 3.27% | A− |
| PHX to BOS · Boston | 428 | 77.3% | 106 min | 2.34% | B |
| PHX to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 142 | 95.0% | 185 min | 0.70% | A+ |
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 12 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,606 flights94.4%
- 8am–11am1,163 flights90.5%
- 11am–2pm2,578 flights83.6%
- 2pm–5pm1,630 flights82.2%
- 5pm–8pm1,208 flights83.7%
- 8pm–5am1,483 flights84.6%
Scale runs 75% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.4% of the time, against 82.2% for the afternoon window. That is 12 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,606 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 82.7% on time, against 89.9% in August. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. March was the busiest month here, with 966 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 45%Carrier
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
41% 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 119,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 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 118,616 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.03% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.25%.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.8% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
The sample behind these figures is 10,668 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: take the 5am–8am departure, avoid December if the dates are flexible, and if two carriers are within a few dollars of each other, Delta is the one with the record behind it. None of that guarantees an on-time arrival; it moves the odds by 16 points, which is the most any booking decision can do. 10,531 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at PHX
How often is Delta Air Lines at PHX delayed?
About one flight in eight arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 13.1% of the 10,668 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines at PHX?
Delta Air Lines leads at 86.9% on time across 10,668 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 70.8%, 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 Delta Air Lines at PHX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.4% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 82.2%, 12 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 December delays on Delta Air Lines at PHX?
December is the weakest month at 82.7% on time, compared with 89.9% in August. Across the year that is 7 points between the best and worst months. The seasonal swing is modest enough that it should not decide when you travel.
Related
Where to go next
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) all carriers
- PHX to ATL route record87.0%
- PHX to MSP route record86.2%
- PHX to SEA route record87.8%
- PHX to SLC route record90.4%
- 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.