Carrier performance at one airport
DL→RSW
Delta Air Lines at Southwest Florida International
- Departures
- 7,455
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 8
- Rank here
- #2 of 7
Delta Air Lines at Fort Myers lands a B, 4 points 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 an hour and a half on average. That rests on 7,455 flights, of which United Airlines flew 5,880 at 84.5% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 3 points ahead of the 77.9% weighted average across all carriers at RSW. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
81.2%
7,294 completed departures
Avg delay
84 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.92%
At RSW, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 7 carriers clearing the floor at RSW
These figures cover 7,455 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 9 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 RSW, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 84.5% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 65.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 974 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 5,880 | 84.5% | 80 min | 1.02% | B |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 7,455 | 81.2% | 84 min | 1.92% | B |
| American Airlines | 6,449 | 77.4% | 106 min | 2.11% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 8,239 | 76.7% | 59 min | 1.20% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 3,940 | 71.9% | 85 min | 3.15% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,470 | 67.8% | 92 min | 2.65% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 974 | 65.7% | 75 min | 5.85% | C− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 5.8% 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 RSW
Delta Air Lines operates 8 routes out of RSW 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSW to ATL · Atlanta | 2,720 | 86.3% | 82 min | 1.58% | A |
| RSW to DTW · Detroit | 1,358 | 78.0% | 80 min | 1.25% | B |
| RSW to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,205 | 80.2% | 81 min | 1.33% | B |
| RSW to LGA · New York | 669 | 70.6% | 104 min | 4.78% | C− |
| RSW to BOS · Boston | 549 | 75.3% | 78 min | 1.28% | B |
| RSW to JFK · New York | 472 | 80.4% | 73 min | 5.08% | B− |
| RSW to CVG · Cincinnatithin sample | 364 | 86.2% | 102 min | 0.55% | A+ |
| RSW to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 118 | 81.9% | 73 min | 1.69% | B |
Flight by flight
Delta Air Lines flight numbers from RSW
5 Delta Air Lines flight numbers leaving RSW 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 22 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,195 flights93.5%
- 8am–11am985 flights87.9%
- 11am–2pm2,215 flights81.1%
- 2pm–5pm1,098 flights77.6%
- 5pm–8pm1,516 flights72.5%
- 8pm–5am446 flights71.6%
Scale runs 65% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 93.5% of the time, against 71.6% for the overnight 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. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 2,215 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
September is the best month on the calendar at 91.7% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 846 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 115,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. The split is drawn from 115,297 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.92% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.24%.
7.5% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 7,455 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: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 91.7% on time and March 72.6%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 7,294 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at RSW
How often is Delta Air Lines at RSW 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 18.8% of the 7,455 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines at RSW?
United Airlines leads at 84.5% on time across 5,880 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 65.7%, a gap of 19 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 RSW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 71.6%, 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 March delays on Delta Air Lines at RSW?
March is the weakest month at 72.6% on time, compared with 91.7% in September. 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.