Carrier performance at one airport
WN→ABQ
Southwest Airlines at Albuquerque International Sunport
- Departures
- 11,741
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 16
- Rank here
- #6 of 7
Southwest Airlines at Albuquerque 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 about 55 minutes on average. That rests on 11,741 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,183 at 89.3% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs 2 points behind the 83.2% weighted average across all carriers at ABQ. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
81.1%
11,643 completed departures
Avg delay
54 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.61%
At ABQ, this carrier only
Rank here
#6
Of 7 carriers clearing the floor at ABQ
These figures cover 12,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 6 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 ABQ, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 89.3% of the time; American Airlines manages 79.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,554 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,183 | 89.3% | 108 min | 1.35% | A |
| SkyWest Airlines | 5,080 | 87.9% | 80 min | 0.37% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 547 | 86.0% | 44 min | 0.73% | A+ |
| Envoy Air | 1,038 | 84.5% | 63 min | 1.16% | B |
| United Airlines | 2,139 | 83.4% | 88 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 11,741 | 81.1% | 54 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 2,554 | 79.1% | 113 min | 2.08% | B |
Delta leads American by 10 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Route by route
Where Southwest Airlines flies from ABQ
Southwest Airlines operates 16 routes out of ABQ 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABQ to PHX · Phoenix | 1,896 | 80.4% | 54 min | 0.37% | B+ |
| ABQ to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,706 | 81.3% | 56 min | 0.41% | B+ |
| ABQ to DAL · Dallas | 1,625 | 82.4% | 54 min | 1.48% | B |
| ABQ to DEN · Denver | 1,463 | 79.6% | 58 min | 0.48% | B+ |
| ABQ to HOU · Houston | 970 | 83.1% | 47 min | 0.21% | B+ |
| ABQ to AUS · Austin | 842 | 78.4% | 58 min | 0.36% | B+ |
| ABQ to SAN · San Diego | 681 | 78.6% | 58 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| ABQ to LAX · Los Angeles | 515 | 77.4% | 57 min | 1.17% | B |
| ABQ to MDW · Chicago | 423 | 89.3% | 44 min | 0.95% | A+ |
| ABQ to BWI · Baltimore | 399 | 85.5% | 47 min | 1.00% | A |
| ABQ to OAK · Oaklandthin sample | 354 | 87.3% | 41 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| ABQ to BUR · Burbankthin sample | 314 | 80.1% | 61 min | 0.64% | B+ |
| ABQ to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 253 | 72.0% | 49 min | 0.79% | C+ |
| ABQ to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample | 180 | 85.4% | 45 min | 0.56% | A+ |
| ABQ to LGB · Long Beachthin sample | 78 | 79.5% | 44 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ABQ to MCO · Orlandothin sample | 33 | 81.8% | 26 min | 0.00% | 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 37 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,773 flights95.5%
- 8am–11am1,912 flights89.6%
- 11am–2pm2,032 flights83.6%
- 2pm–5pm2,498 flights72.8%
- 5pm–8pm1,891 flights67.6%
- 8pm–5am635 flights58.3%
Scale runs 50% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 58.3% on time, against 95.5% 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 2,773 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 72.8% on time, 15 points below January, the best at 88.2%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. October was the busiest month here, with 1,186 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 54%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
54% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 118,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 24 to one. The split is drawn from 118,327 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.61%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
5.2% 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 about 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 11,741 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. January runs 88.2% on time and June 72.8%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 11,643 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at ABQ
How often is Southwest Airlines at ABQ 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 18.9% of the 11,741 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at ABQ?
Delta Air Lines leads at 89.3% on time across 1,183 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 79.1%, a gap of 10 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 Southwest Airlines at ABQ?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 58.3%, 37 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 June delays on Southwest Airlines at ABQ?
June is the weakest month at 72.8% on time, compared with 88.2% in January. Across the year that is 15 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
- Southwest Airlines network-wide record
- Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ) all carriers
- ABQ to PHX route record80.4%
- ABQ to LAS route record81.3%
- ABQ to DAL route record82.4%
- ABQ to DEN route record79.6%
- Do airlines run better at their own hubs?
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.