Carrier performance at one airport
WN→BNA
Southwest Airlines at Nashville International
- Departures
- 60,657
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #3 of 13
Southwest Airlines at Nashville lands a B+, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 50 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 60,657 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,282 at 84.6% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs half a point behind the 76.7% weighted average across all carriers at BNA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
76.4%
60,003 completed departures
Avg delay
51 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.87%
At BNA, this carrier only
Rank here
#3
Of 13 carriers clearing the floor at BNA
These figures cover 61,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 3 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 BNA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 84.6% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 70.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,161 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 9,282 | 84.6% | 84 min | 1.83% | B |
| United Airlines | 6,670 | 76.9% | 85 min | 1.41% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 60,657 | 76.4% | 51 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| Allegiant Air | 2,319 | 76.1% | 97 min | 0.60% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 3,107 | 75.7% | 101 min | 1.87% | B |
| American Airlines | 9,458 | 75.6% | 97 min | 2.34% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,725 | 75.5% | 81 min | 3.49% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 2,120 | 74.8% | 69 min | 2.55% | C |
| Republic Airways | 7,294 | 74.6% | 69 min | 3.72% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,417 | 72.2% | 71 min | 3.46% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,388 | 72.2% | 84 min | 5.55% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 868 | 72.0% | 89 min | 1.84% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,161 | 70.1% | 49 min | 1.12% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.5% 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 Southwest Airlines flies from BNA
Southwest Airlines operates 25 routes out of BNA 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNA to MCO · Orlando | 2,530 | 74.8% | 52 min | 0.71% | C+ |
| BNA to DAL · Dallas | 2,412 | 78.7% | 60 min | 1.00% | B |
| BNA to DEN · Denver | 2,160 | 73.8% | 53 min | 0.46% | C+ |
| BNA to AUS · Austin | 2,017 | 80.9% | 52 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| BNA to MDW · Chicago | 1,908 | 78.2% | 52 min | 1.31% | B |
| BNA to PHX · Phoenix | 1,815 | 78.6% | 52 min | 0.88% | B+ |
| BNA to HOU · Houston | 1,797 | 78.8% | 46 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| BNA to BWI · Baltimore | 1,763 | 78.8% | 52 min | 2.16% | B |
| BNA to TPA · Tampa | 1,758 | 73.4% | 52 min | 0.97% | C+ |
| BNA to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,737 | 78.2% | 46 min | 0.69% | B+ |
| BNA to DCA · Washington | 1,627 | 73.4% | 52 min | 1.54% | C |
| BNA to LGA · New York | 1,444 | 71.3% | 57 min | 2.91% | C |
| BNA to MSY · New Orleans | 1,433 | 80.0% | 51 min | 0.91% | B+ |
| BNA to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 1,398 | 75.5% | 52 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| BNA to MCI · Kansas City | 1,384 | 77.0% | 54 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| BNA to STL · St. Louis | 1,268 | 80.4% | 52 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| BNA to RDU · Raleigh | 1,260 | 75.4% | 48 min | 1.19% | B |
| BNA to JAX · Jacksonville | 1,094 | 75.8% | 49 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| BNA to ECP · Panama City | 1,083 | 79.3% | 54 min | 0.37% | B+ |
| BNA to SAN · San Diego | 1,038 | 76.8% | 45 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| BNA to PIT · Pittsburgh | 1,017 | 74.2% | 50 min | 0.49% | C+ |
| BNA to CMH · Columbus | 1,007 | 80.4% | 53 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| BNA to BOS · Boston | 995 | 61.3% | 53 min | 1.41% | D |
| BNA to CHS · Charleston | 985 | 75.4% | 51 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| BNA to MKE · Milwaukee | 967 | 75.1% | 51 min | 1.03% | 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 31 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am8,137 flights93.9%
- 8am–11am10,511 flights90.8%
- 11am–2pm11,084 flights78.7%
- 2pm–5pm12,016 flights68.8%
- 5pm–8pm10,752 flights63.3%
- 8pm–5am8,157 flights65.4%
Scale runs 55% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 63.3% on time, against 93.9% 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
Seasonal pattern
Delays peak in May, when the on-time rate falls to 64.9%. January is the strongest month at 87.9%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 23 points.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 15%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
56% 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 723,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 25 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.
Cancellations are rare at 0.87%, below the national 1.80% 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.
6.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. 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 about 50 minutes kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
60,657 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.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 87.9% on time and May 64.9%, a swing of 23 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of May before you think about anything else.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at BNA
How often is Southwest Airlines at BNA delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.6% of the 60,657 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 50 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at BNA?
Delta Air Lines leads at 84.6% on time across 9,282 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 70.1%, a gap of 15 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 BNA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 63.3%, 31 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 May delays on Southwest Airlines at BNA?
May is the weakest month at 64.9% on time, compared with 87.9% in January. 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, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.