Carrier performance at one airport
WN→PIT
Southwest Airlines at Pittsburgh International
- Departures
- 10,300
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 18
- Rank here
- #4 of 12
Southwest Airlines at Pittsburgh lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 10,300 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,330 at 87.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs half a point behind the 81.2% 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
80.6%
10,202 completed departures
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.70%
At PIT, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at PIT
These figures cover 10,000 flights between June 2025 and May 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 PIT, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.7% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 65.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 655 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,330 | 87.7% | 64 min | 2.10% | A |
| Republic Airways | 11,503 | 83.8% | 66 min | 2.91% | B |
| United Airlines | 3,967 | 83.0% | 76 min | 0.91% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 10,300 | 80.6% | 59 min | 0.70% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,348 | 80.0% | 74 min | 3.34% | B− |
| American Airlines | 5,894 | 79.4% | 97 min | 1.75% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 1,642 | 78.8% | 96 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,672 | 78.6% | 87 min | 3.35% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,291 | 73.4% | 114 min | 2.01% | C |
| Envoy Air | 553 | 72.7% | 67 min | 2.53% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 471 | 68.8% | 55 min | 1.27% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 655 | 65.4% | 84 min | 6.26% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.3% 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 18 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 | 1,543 | 79.0% | 64 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| PIT to MDW · Chicago | 1,150 | 79.5% | 59 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| PIT to BWI · Baltimore | 1,074 | 85.1% | 61 min | 1.30% | A |
| PIT to BNA · Nashville | 1,010 | 83.4% | 63 min | 0.69% | B+ |
| PIT to TPA · Tampa | 792 | 79.6% | 71 min | 0.13% | B+ |
| PIT to DEN · Denver | 766 | 75.1% | 61 min | 0.78% | B+ |
| PIT to LAS · Las Vegas | 675 | 82.4% | 48 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| PIT to RSW · Fort Myers | 492 | 79.5% | 60 min | 0.81% | B+ |
| PIT to STL · St. Louis | 455 | 83.3% | 54 min | 0.22% | B+ |
| PIT to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 393 | 78.9% | 52 min | 1.02% | B |
| PIT to PHX · Phoenix | 374 | 74.0% | 53 min | 0.53% | C+ |
| PIT to DAL · Dallas | 366 | 79.7% | 49 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| PIT to HOU · Houstonthin sample | 317 | 77.5% | 58 min | 0.32% | B+ |
| PIT to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 311 | 86.7% | 45 min | 0.32% | A+ |
| PIT to AUS · Austinthin sample | 304 | 85.8% | 46 min | 0.33% | A+ |
| PIT to SRQ · Sarasotathin sample | 184 | 80.2% | 80 min | 1.09% | B |
| PIT to MIA · Miamithin sample | 43 | 76.2% | 47 min | 2.33% | B |
| PIT to MYR · Myrtle Beachthin sample | 42 | 85.7% | 47 min | 0.00% | 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 32 points, against 22 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am3,021 flights93.1%
- 8am–11am1,079 flights91.9%
- 11am–2pm1,843 flights83.7%
- 2pm–5pm1,568 flights73.8%
- 5pm–8pm2,062 flights65.4%
- 8pm–5am727 flights60.8%
Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 60.8% on time, against 93.1% 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
December is the weak month at 72.9% on time, against 87.7% 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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%National Airspace System
- 22%Carrier
- 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. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 118,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 18 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 0.70%, 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.
6.0% 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 an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 10,300 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 December 72.9%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at PIT
How often is Southwest Airlines at PIT 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 19.4% of the 10,300 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% 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 87.7% on time across 3,330 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 65.4%, a gap of 22 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 93.1% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 60.8%, 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 December delays on Southwest Airlines at PIT?
December is the weakest month at 72.9% on time, compared with 87.7% in September. 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
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.