Airline on-time record
F9
Frontier Airlines
- Flights
- 586,719
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Airports
- 25
- US rank
- #8 by volume
Frontier Airlines sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 7 points worse than the national rate of 75.9%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 586,719 flights, of which Honolulu (HNL) flew 8,416 at 76.9% on time.
Honolulu (HNL) is the most reliable of the 25 airports covered here at 76.9% on time across 8,416 flights.
Key figures
On time
69.3%
National average is 75.9%
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.25%
National rate is 2.23%
Largest base
MIA
104,409 departures, 68.8% on time
These figures cover 587,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.0% 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.
Airport by airport
Where Frontier Airlines runs well, and where it does not
The choice of airport is not cosmetic here. Honolulu (HNL) arrives on time 76.9% of the time; Boston (BOS) manages 64.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 8,223 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airport | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIA · Miami | 104,409 | 68.8% | 58 min | 2.60% | C |
| LAX · Los Angeles | 66,967 | 71.3% | 55 min | 1.97% | C |
| ORD · Chicago | 38,999 | 65.7% | 59 min | 2.16% | C |
| CLT · Charlotte | 33,001 | 69.2% | 55 min | 2.18% | C |
| FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 26,853 | 66.4% | 58 min | 2.95% | C |
| IAH · Houston | 23,360 | 67.4% | 54 min | 1.80% | C |
| PHX · Phoenix | 21,559 | 73.6% | 53 min | 3.26% | C− |
| JFK · New York | 19,538 | 66.0% | 61 min | 1.64% | C |
| MCO · Orlando | 16,548 | 69.1% | 56 min | 3.41% | C− |
| DEN · Denver | 16,369 | 70.4% | 58 min | 1.55% | C |
| ATL · Atlanta | 15,930 | 71.0% | 56 min | 1.37% | C |
| DCA · Washington | 15,003 | 69.0% | 58 min | 1.77% | C |
| BWI · Baltimore | 12,514 | 71.4% | 55 min | 1.70% | C |
| SAN · San Diego | 10,300 | 69.7% | 62 min | 3.35% | C− |
| HNL · Honolulu | 8,416 | 76.9% | 47 min | 2.36% | B |
| BOS · Boston | 8,223 | 64.1% | 55 min | 1.93% | D |
| IAD · Washington | 8,164 | 66.8% | 58 min | 2.18% | C |
| RDU · Raleigh | 8,114 | 65.6% | 59 min | 1.93% | C |
| LAS · Las Vegas | 7,616 | 70.0% | 52 min | 1.58% | C |
| PDX · Portland | 7,355 | 70.4% | 54 min | 1.97% | C |
| DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 7,048 | 68.8% | 61 min | 3.09% | C− |
| ABQ · Albuquerque | 6,899 | 65.5% | 58 min | 1.77% | C |
| SEA · Seattle | 6,415 | 71.2% | 58 min | 1.64% | C |
| BUR · Burbank | 5,722 | 71.2% | 54 min | 2.62% | C |
| MSY · New Orleans | 5,587 | 70.5% | 52 min | 1.66% | C |
Orlando (MCO) cancels 3.4% 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
Busiest Frontier Airlines routes
These are the 25 routes Frontier Airlines flies most often, each against its network-wide 69.3%. Route-level variation inside a single airline is routinely wider than the gap between two airlines nationally.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MIA to ORD | 71,447 | 68.6% | 62 min | 2.98% | C |
| LAX to MIA | 28,386 | 74.6% | 45 min | 2.20% | C |
| ORD to SFO | 26,874 | 65.3% | 60 min | 2.18% | C |
| IAH to EWR | 22,119 | 67.4% | 59 min | 1.77% | C |
| PHX to MSP | 15,531 | 73.7% | 52 min | 3.68% | C− |
| LAX to DEN | 14,243 | 67.3% | 54 min | 0.98% | C+ |
| MCO to ORD | 13,319 | 68.9% | 67 min | 3.77% | C− |
| ATL to BOS | 11,154 | 70.2% | 56 min | 1.17% | C |
| FLL to MCO | 11,022 | 63.1% | 61 min | 2.06% | D |
| LAX to MSP | 10,393 | 71.0% | 52 min | 2.56% | C |
| JFK to OAK | 9,049 | 66.4% | 57 min | 1.50% | C |
| MIA to DEN | 8,731 | 67.5% | 63 min | 2.24% | C |
| CLT to LGA | 8,714 | 69.2% | 57 min | 2.47% | C |
| CLT to JFK | 8,421 | 66.8% | 68 min | 2.97% | C |
| BWI to LAX | 6,831 | 71.3% | 50 min | 1.93% | C |
| FLL to DTW | 6,665 | 73.1% | 56 min | 4.37% | C− |
| RDU to DCA | 6,295 | 64.8% | 57 min | 1.89% | D |
| DCA to LGA | 6,155 | 66.5% | 63 min | 1.35% | C |
| CLT to IAH | 6,119 | 66.3% | 62 min | 1.73% | C |
| ABQ to LAX | 6,118 | 64.5% | 55 min | 1.83% | D |
| DEN to RDU | 5,969 | 67.8% | 56 min | 1.31% | C |
| MIA to LAX | 5,602 | 72.7% | 51 min | 1.66% | C |
| HNL to BNA | 5,107 | 76.7% | 46 min | 2.98% | B |
| DEN to BOS | 5,081 | 72.4% | 59 min | 1.40% | C |
| CLT to MDW | 5,010 | 71.4% | 62 min | 0.74% | C+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to fly Frontier Airlines
Departure time matters more here than the choice of airport. The gap between the best and worst window is 14 points, against 13 points between the best and worst airport. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am90,939 flights75.7%
- 8am–11am120,276 flights72.4%
- 11am–2pm108,548 flights69.3%
- 2pm–5pm102,682 flights66.5%
- 5pm–8pm105,613 flights61.7%
- 8pm–5am58,665 flights68.3%
Scale runs 55% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.7% on time, against 75.7% 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
Frontier Airlines through the calendar
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 586,719 flights. The strip shows how much of Frontier's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
December is the weak month at 65.1% on time, against 73.0% in September. 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.
The day of the week is close to irrelevant here: 3 points separates the best day from the worst. Weekly demand peaks are not what drives the delays on this operation.
Delay causes
What holds Frontier Airlines up
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 10.3 million reported delay minutes.
- 38%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%National Airspace System
- 25%Carrier
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
38% 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 10.3 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 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 practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 75.7% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.25% against a national 2.23%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.24%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.6% 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.
586,719 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.
What to do with this
Booking Frontier Airlines
Put together: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 61.7% on time against 75.7% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 14 points is the largest single thing you control here. Honolulu (HNL) is the strongest operator if the fares are close.
Common questions
Frontier Airlines reliability questions
How often is Frontier Airlines delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 30.7% of the 586,719 flights in this analysis, against 24.1% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airport does Frontier Airlines run best from?
Honolulu (HNL) leads at 76.9% on time across 8,416 flights. Boston (BOS) is at the other end on 64.1%, a gap of 13 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 Frontier Airlines?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 75.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 61.7%, 14 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 Frontier Airlines?
December is the weakest month at 65.1% on time, compared with 73.0% in September. Across the year that is 8 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
- Frontier Airlines at MIA — Miami68.8%
- Frontier Airlines at LAX — Los Angeles71.3%
- Frontier Airlines at ORD — Chicago65.7%
- Frontier Airlines at CLT — Charlotte69.2%
- Frontier Airlines at FLL — Fort Lauderdale66.4%
- MIA to ORD route record68.6%
- LAX to MIA route record74.6%
- ORD to SFO route record65.3%
- IAH to EWR route record67.4%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 11.3 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.