Carrier performance at one airport
WN→PIT
Southwest Airlines at Pittsburgh International
- Departures
- 10,398
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 19
- Rank here
- #5 of 12
Southwest Airlines at Pittsburgh lands a B+, 2 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 an hour on average. That rests on 10,398 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,305 at 87.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs about a point behind the 80.8% weighted average across all carriers at PIT. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
79.4%
10,285 completed departures
Avg delay
57 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.69%
At PIT, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at PIT
These figures cover 10,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 5 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 PIT, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.1% of the time; Envoy Air manages 65.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 386 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,305 | 87.1% | 69 min | 1.82% | A |
| Republic Airways | 11,641 | 83.2% | 71 min | 3.54% | B− |
| United Airlines | 4,173 | 82.1% | 86 min | 1.03% | B |
| American Airlines | 5,853 | 79.8% | 106 min | 1.49% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 10,398 | 79.4% | 57 min | 0.69% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 935 | 79.0% | 69 min | 4.71% | B− |
| Allegiant Air | 1,607 | 78.6% | 98 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,761 | 78.5% | 82 min | 4.94% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,126 | 74.9% | 115 min | 1.78% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 474 | 74.0% | 50 min | 1.05% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 850 | 67.9% | 94 min | 7.41% | C− |
| Envoy Air | 386 | 65.9% | 63 min | 2.85% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 7.4% 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
Where Southwest Airlines flies from PIT
Southwest Airlines operates 19 routes out of PIT 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PIT to MCO · Orlando | 1,703 | 79.3% | 61 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| PIT to MDW · Chicago | 1,097 | 76.7% | 58 min | 1.09% | B |
| PIT to BWI · Baltimore | 1,071 | 85.7% | 57 min | 1.40% | A |
| PIT to BNA · Nashville | 1,017 | 81.2% | 51 min | 0.69% | B+ |
| PIT to TPA · Tampa | 797 | 78.0% | 73 min | 0.25% | B+ |
| PIT to DEN · Denver | 768 | 74.6% | 57 min | 0.78% | C+ |
| PIT to LAS · Las Vegas | 608 | 83.2% | 54 min | 0.16% | B+ |
| PIT to STL · St. Louis | 521 | 80.6% | 51 min | 0.19% | B+ |
| PIT to RSW · Fort Myers | 475 | 78.4% | 56 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| PIT to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 392 | 78.1% | 55 min | 1.02% | B |
| PIT to PHX · Phoenix | 373 | 71.7% | 51 min | 0.54% | C+ |
| PIT to DAL · Dallas | 365 | 80.4% | 44 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| PIT to HOU · Houstonthin sample | 316 | 74.6% | 47 min | 0.32% | C+ |
| PIT to AUS · Austinthin sample | 296 | 80.3% | 50 min | 0.34% | B+ |
| PIT to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 285 | 85.5% | 35 min | 0.35% | A+ |
| PIT to SRQ · Sarasotathin sample | 173 | 82.5% | 81 min | 1.16% | B |
| PIT to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 52 | 53.8% | 57 min | 0.00% | F+ |
| PIT to MIA · Miamithin sample | 51 | 76.0% | 51 min | 1.96% | B |
| PIT to MYR · Myrtle Beachthin sample | 30 | 80.0% | 95 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 32 points, against 21 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,994 flights92.8%
- 8am–11am1,249 flights89.9%
- 11am–2pm1,768 flights81.4%
- 2pm–5pm1,611 flights71.7%
- 5pm–8pm1,969 flights64.3%
- 8pm–5am807 flights60.6%
Scale runs 50% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 60.6% on time, against 92.8% 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 2,994 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
August is the worst month at 68.6% on time, 19 points below September, the best at 87.7%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 953 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 120,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 19 to one. The split is drawn from 120,352 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.69%, 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.
5.8% 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 an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 10,398 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 87.7% on time and August 68.6%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 10,285 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at PIT
How often is Southwest Airlines at PIT 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 20.6% of the 10,398 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at PIT?
Delta Air Lines leads at 87.1% on time across 3,305 flights. Envoy Air is at the other end on 65.9%, a gap of 21 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 PIT?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 60.6%, 32 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 August delays on Southwest Airlines at PIT?
August is the weakest month at 68.6% on time, compared with 87.7% in September. Across the year that is 19 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.