Carrier performance at one airport
F9→PHL
Frontier Airlines at Philadelphia International
- Departures
- 9,148
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #9 of 10
Frontier Airlines at Philadelphia sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 8 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 9,148 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 6,461 at 83.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Frontier Airlines runs 6 points behind the 75.7% weighted average across all carriers at PHL. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
69.4%
8,898 completed departures
Avg delay
85 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.57%
At PHL, this carrier only
Rank here
#9
Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at PHL
These figures cover 9,148 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.4% 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 PHL, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 83.1% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 66.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 705 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 6,461 | 83.1% | 84 min | 2.23% | B |
| Republic Airways | 7,018 | 81.7% | 75 min | 2.95% | B |
| United Airlines | 4,324 | 78.6% | 88 min | 1.20% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 16,653 | 75.6% | 88 min | 4.36% | B− |
| American Airlines | 46,337 | 75.5% | 80 min | 2.29% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 5,086 | 73.1% | 61 min | 1.06% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,663 | 72.0% | 77 min | 2.22% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,274 | 71.8% | 70 min | 4.57% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines (this page) | 9,148 | 69.4% | 85 min | 2.57% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 705 | 66.2% | 55 min | 1.56% | C |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.6% 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 Frontier Airlines flies from PHL
Frontier Airlines operates 25 routes out of PHL 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHL to MCO · Orlando | 1,529 | 70.2% | 107 min | 2.16% | C |
| PHL to ATL · Atlanta | 1,008 | 66.4% | 71 min | 2.78% | C |
| PHL to SJU · San Juan | 865 | 57.9% | 75 min | 3.35% | D− |
| PHL to TPA · Tampa | 784 | 69.8% | 93 min | 2.04% | C |
| PHL to RDU · Raleigh | 585 | 81.2% | 68 min | 2.56% | B |
| PHL to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 579 | 73.1% | 81 min | 1.73% | C |
| PHL to CLT · Charlotte | 544 | 72.6% | 74 min | 2.21% | C |
| PHL to MIA · Miamithin sample | 354 | 66.6% | 83 min | 1.98% | C |
| PHL to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample | 302 | 68.9% | 67 min | 4.30% | C− |
| PHL to DEN · Denverthin sample | 296 | 68.4% | 112 min | 1.69% | C |
| PHL to PBI · West Palm Beachthin sample | 270 | 66.0% | 67 min | 4.07% | C− |
| PHL to JAX · Jacksonvillethin sample | 265 | 68.9% | 75 min | 3.02% | C− |
| PHL to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 265 | 69.3% | 85 min | 3.77% | C− |
| PHL to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 189 | 58.6% | 137 min | 4.23% | D− |
| PHL to MSY · New Orleansthin sample | 162 | 73.4% | 78 min | 1.85% | C |
| PHL to MYR · Myrtle Beachthin sample | 151 | 66.4% | 89 min | 3.31% | C− |
| PHL to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 144 | 68.3% | 79 min | 3.47% | C− |
| PHL to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 114 | 72.1% | 103 min | 1.75% | C |
| PHL to PIT · Pittsburghthin sample | 104 | 70.6% | 97 min | 1.92% | C |
| PHL to SRQ · Sarasotathin sample | 87 | 81.7% | 91 min | 5.75% | B− |
| PHL to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 85 | 67.1% | 66 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| PHL to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 78 | 78.9% | 119 min | 2.56% | B |
| PHL to CHS · Charlestonthin sample | 74 | 76.7% | 71 min | 1.35% | B |
| PHL to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 70 | 68.1% | 60 min | 1.43% | C |
| PHL to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 57 | 87.5% | 43 min | 1.75% | 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 18 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,111 flights78.2%
- 8am–11am1,351 flights75.1%
- 11am–2pm1,651 flights71.6%
- 2pm–5pm1,107 flights65.9%
- 5pm–8pm1,988 flights59.9%
- 8pm–5am940 flights61.3%
Scale runs 50% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 59.9% on time, against 78.2% 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. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,111 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
January is the weak month at 58.0% on time, against 80.7% 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. April was the busiest month here, with 918 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
44% 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 232,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 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 231,898 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.57%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 13.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% 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.
The sample behind these figures is 9,148 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 80.7% on time and January 58.0%, a swing of 23 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of January before you think about anything else. 8,898 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Frontier Airlines at PHL
How often is Frontier Airlines at PHL 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 30.6% of the 9,148 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 Frontier Airlines at PHL?
Delta Air Lines leads at 83.1% on time across 6,461 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 66.2%, a gap of 17 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 at PHL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 78.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 59.9%, 18 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 January delays on Frontier Airlines at PHL?
January is the weakest month at 58.0% on time, compared with 80.7% in September. Across the year that is 23 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.