Carrier performance at one airport
F9→PHX
Frontier Airlines at Phoenix Sky Harbor International
- Departures
- 7,587
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #6 of 9
Frontier Airlines at Phoenix lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 7,587 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 10,668 at 86.9% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Frontier Airlines runs half a point 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
79.5%
7,476 completed departures
Avg delay
84 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.17%
At PHX, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at PHX
These figures cover 7,587 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.0% 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.
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 | 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 (this page) | 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 Frontier Airlines flies from PHX
Frontier Airlines operates 25 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 DEN · Denver | 1,427 | 80.0% | 88 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| PHX to LAS · Las Vegas | 861 | 82.7% | 108 min | 1.05% | B |
| PHX to SLC · Salt Lake City | 677 | 83.6% | 78 min | 1.77% | B |
| PHX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 567 | 79.0% | 91 min | 1.76% | B |
| PHX to LAX · Los Angeles | 489 | 83.1% | 86 min | 1.02% | B |
| PHX to SAN · San Diego | 406 | 76.5% | 83 min | 0.99% | B+ |
| PHX to CLE · Clevelandthin sample | 319 | 72.7% | 83 min | 1.88% | C |
| PHX to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 312 | 76.5% | 85 min | 1.28% | B |
| PHX to SNA · Santa Anathin sample | 288 | 87.3% | 68 min | 1.04% | A |
| PHX to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 277 | 78.5% | 62 min | 1.08% | B |
| PHX to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 263 | 68.6% | 61 min | 0.76% | C+ |
| PHX to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 215 | 72.2% | 74 min | 0.93% | C+ |
| PHX to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 203 | 68.8% | 122 min | 3.94% | C− |
| PHX to MCO · Orlandothin sample | 195 | 76.4% | 66 min | 1.54% | B |
| PHX to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 165 | 86.1% | 80 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PHX to AUS · Austinthin sample | 162 | 84.5% | 75 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| PHX to CVG · Cincinnatithin sample | 135 | 79.5% | 39 min | 2.22% | B |
| PHX to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 127 | 66.4% | 80 min | 1.57% | C |
| PHX to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 95 | 90.5% | 87 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PHX to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 74 | 82.2% | 60 min | 1.35% | B |
| PHX to SAT · San Antoniothin sample | 65 | 90.8% | 34 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PHX to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample | 55 | 81.8% | 46 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PHX to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 53 | 82.7% | 170 min | 1.89% | B |
| PHX to GEG · Spokanethin sample | 45 | 68.9% | 79 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| PHX to RNO · Renothin sample | 40 | 82.1% | 86 min | 2.50% | 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 19 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,643 flights88.7%
- 8am–11am1,279 flights83.7%
- 11am–2pm1,313 flights82.1%
- 2pm–5pm1,334 flights74.0%
- 5pm–8pm1,169 flights69.3%
- 8pm–5am849 flights73.9%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.7% of the time, against 69.3% for the evening window. That is 19 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 1,643 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
Delays peak in March, when the on-time rate falls to 72.8%. February is the strongest month at 86.5%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 14 points. March was the busiest month here, with 952 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 19%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 129,000 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 128,768 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.17% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.29%.
8.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the an hour and a half kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 7,587 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. February runs 86.5% on time and March 72.8%, a swing of 14 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 7,476 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Frontier Airlines at PHX
How often is Frontier Airlines at PHX delayed?
About one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 20.5% of the 7,587 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 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 Frontier Airlines at PHX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 69.3%, 19 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 Frontier Airlines at PHX?
March is the weakest month at 72.8% on time, compared with 86.5% in February. Across the year that is 14 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
- Frontier Airlines network-wide record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) all carriers
- PHX to DEN route record80.0%
- PHX to LAS route record82.7%
- PHX to SLC route record83.6%
- PHX to DFW route record79.0%
- 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.