Carrier performance at one airport
WN→RSW
Southwest Airlines at Southwest Florida International
- Departures
- 8,253
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 14
- Rank here
- #3 of 7
Southwest Airlines at Fort Myers lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.6%. Roughly one flight in four 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 8,253 flights, of which United Airlines flew 5,868 at 84.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs half a point behind the 78.1% weighted average across all carriers at RSW. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
77.6%
8,132 completed departures
Avg delay
60 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.18%
At RSW, this carrier only
Rank here
#3
Of 7 carriers clearing the floor at RSW
These figures cover 8,253 flights between July 2025 and June 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 RSW, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 84.1% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 68.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,144 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 5,868 | 84.1% | 81 min | 0.90% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 7,550 | 81.7% | 84 min | 1.80% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 8,253 | 77.6% | 60 min | 1.18% | B |
| American Airlines | 6,359 | 76.8% | 100 min | 2.42% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 4,146 | 72.4% | 86 min | 2.63% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,501 | 68.9% | 93 min | 2.40% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,144 | 68.0% | 73 min | 5.07% | C− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 5.1% 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 RSW
Southwest Airlines operates 14 routes out of RSW 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSW to BWI · Baltimore | 1,435 | 79.3% | 58 min | 2.09% | B |
| RSW to MDW · Chicago | 1,161 | 75.0% | 58 min | 1.38% | B |
| RSW to STL · St. Louis | 1,005 | 81.7% | 61 min | 0.80% | B+ |
| RSW to IND · Indianapolis | 810 | 76.8% | 63 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| RSW to BNA · Nashville | 784 | 79.4% | 55 min | 0.77% | B+ |
| RSW to CMH · Columbus | 650 | 75.2% | 59 min | 1.38% | B |
| RSW to MCO · Orlando | 577 | 83.7% | 51 min | 1.21% | B |
| RSW to PIT · Pittsburgh | 488 | 74.0% | 73 min | 0.41% | C+ |
| RSW to MKE · Milwaukee | 409 | 75.5% | 62 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| RSW to DEN · Denverthin sample | 315 | 73.9% | 60 min | 0.32% | C+ |
| RSW to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample | 229 | 79.1% | 52 min | 1.31% | B |
| RSW to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 124 | 76.2% | 55 min | 0.81% | B+ |
| RSW to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 103 | 56.0% | 78 min | 1.94% | D |
| RSW to BUF · Buffalothin sample | 68 | 74.6% | 51 min | 1.47% | C |
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 34 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,820 flights95.1%
- 8am–11am1,301 flights89.7%
- 11am–2pm1,640 flights79.0%
- 2pm–5pm1,339 flights66.8%
- 5pm–8pm1,450 flights60.7%
- 8pm–5am703 flights60.9%
Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 60.7% on time, against 95.1% 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. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,820 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 69.9% on time, against 89.9% 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. March was the busiest month here, with 1,113 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 57%Late-arriving aircraft
- 19%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
57% 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 109,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 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. The split is drawn from 109,008 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.18% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.29%.
6.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. 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 8,253 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 89.9% on time and December 69.9%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 8,132 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at RSW
How often is Southwest Airlines at RSW delayed?
Roughly 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 22.4% of the 8,253 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at RSW?
United Airlines leads at 84.1% on time across 5,868 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 68.0%, a gap of 16 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 RSW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 60.7%, 34 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 RSW?
December is the weakest month at 69.9% on time, compared with 89.9% in September. Across the year that is 20 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.