Carrier performance at one airport
WN→RNO
Southwest Airlines at Reno-Tahoe International
- Departures
- 8,208
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 11
- Rank here
- #5 of 7
Southwest Airlines at Reno lands a B+, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in six 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 8,208 flights, of which Spirit Airlines flew 610 at 87.3% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs half a point ahead of the 82.0% weighted average across all carriers at RNO. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
82.2%
8,149 completed departures
Avg delay
57 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.51%
At RNO, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 7 carriers clearing the floor at RNO
These figures cover 8,208 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 7 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 RNO, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Spirit Airlines arrives on time 87.3% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 75.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 951 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlines | 610 | 87.3% | 76 min | 1.97% | A |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,130 | 84.4% | 106 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 2,514 | 83.9% | 112 min | 1.83% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 4,010 | 82.6% | 67 min | 0.92% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 8,208 | 82.2% | 57 min | 0.51% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 2,756 | 78.9% | 67 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 951 | 75.5% | 54 min | 1.47% | B |
Spirit leads Alaska by 12 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 RNO
Southwest Airlines operates 11 routes out of RNO 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RNO to LAS · Las Vegas | 3,134 | 82.8% | 58 min | 0.48% | B+ |
| RNO to DEN · Denver | 1,092 | 86.2% | 66 min | 0.27% | A+ |
| RNO to PHX · Phoenix | 958 | 84.9% | 66 min | 0.42% | B+ |
| RNO to SAN · San Diego | 912 | 74.0% | 49 min | 0.33% | C+ |
| RNO to LGB · Long Beach | 704 | 82.2% | 53 min | 0.85% | B+ |
| RNO to BUR · Burbank | 438 | 85.3% | 67 min | 0.46% | A+ |
| RNO to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 358 | 81.0% | 61 min | 1.68% | B |
| RNO to SJC · San Josethin sample | 243 | 71.5% | 47 min | 0.41% | C+ |
| RNO to AUS · Austinthin sample | 215 | 75.6% | 46 min | 0.47% | B+ |
| RNO to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 85 | 96.4% | 31 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| RNO to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 58 | 87.7% | 75 min | 1.72% | 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 31 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,081 flights95.4%
- 8am–11am1,774 flights89.1%
- 11am–2pm1,360 flights82.7%
- 2pm–5pm1,337 flights71.0%
- 5pm–8pm1,230 flights64.7%
- 8pm–5am426 flights72.5%
Scale runs 55% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 64.7% on time, against 95.4% 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
July is the worst month at 77.5% on time, 13 points below January, the best at 90.3%. 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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 53%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%National Airspace System
- 18%Carrier
- 4%Extreme weather
53% 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 83,000 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.
Cancellations are rare at 0.51%, 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.
5.5% 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 8,208 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 90.3% on time and July 77.5%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at RNO
How often is Southwest Airlines at RNO delayed?
About one flight in six arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.8% of the 8,208 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 RNO?
Spirit Airlines leads at 87.3% on time across 610 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 75.5%, a gap of 12 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 RNO?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 64.7%, 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 July delays on Southwest Airlines at RNO?
July is the weakest month at 77.5% on time, compared with 90.3% in January. Across the year that is 13 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.