Carrier performance at one airport
WN→RSW
Southwest Airlines at Southwest Florida International
- Departures
- 8,239
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 14
- Rank here
- #4 of 7
Southwest Airlines at Fort Myers lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 8,239 flights, of which United Airlines flew 5,880 at 84.5% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs about a point behind the 77.9% 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
76.7%
8,110 completed departures
Avg delay
59 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.20%
At RSW, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 7 carriers clearing the floor at RSW
These figures cover 8,239 flights between September 2025 and August 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 84.5% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 65.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 974 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 5,880 | 84.5% | 80 min | 1.02% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 7,455 | 81.2% | 84 min | 1.92% | B |
| American Airlines | 6,449 | 77.4% | 106 min | 2.11% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 8,239 | 76.7% | 59 min | 1.20% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 3,940 | 71.9% | 85 min | 3.15% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,470 | 67.8% | 92 min | 2.65% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 974 | 65.7% | 75 min | 5.85% | C− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 5.8% 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 | 1,408 | 79.4% | 55 min | 2.27% | B |
| RSW to MDW · Chicago | 1,165 | 73.0% | 58 min | 1.37% | C |
| RSW to STL · St. Louis | 1,010 | 80.2% | 62 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| RSW to BNA · Nashville | 828 | 78.2% | 52 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| RSW to IND · Indianapolis | 804 | 76.0% | 64 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| RSW to CMH · Columbus | 653 | 74.1% | 56 min | 1.53% | C |
| RSW to MCO · Orlando | 613 | 84.1% | 57 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| RSW to PIT · Pittsburgh | 475 | 71.2% | 72 min | 0.42% | C+ |
| RSW to MKE · Milwaukee | 375 | 75.4% | 63 min | 1.07% | B |
| RSW to DEN · Denverthin sample | 313 | 73.3% | 57 min | 0.32% | C+ |
| RSW to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample | 215 | 78.7% | 54 min | 1.40% | B |
| RSW to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 123 | 76.0% | 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 36 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,883 flights94.9%
- 8am–11am1,270 flights89.3%
- 11am–2pm1,586 flights78.5%
- 2pm–5pm1,356 flights64.9%
- 5pm–8pm1,432 flights58.5%
- 8pm–5am712 flights60.2%
Scale runs 50% to 100%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 58.5% on time, against 94.9% 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. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,883 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
- 20%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 4%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. Across 112,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. The split is drawn from 111,748 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.20% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.36%.
7.2% 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 8,239 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. 8,110 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at RSW
How often is Southwest Airlines at RSW delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.3% of the 8,239 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 RSW?
United Airlines leads at 84.5% on time across 5,880 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 65.7%, a gap of 19 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 94.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 58.5%, 36 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
- Southwest Airlines network-wide record
- Southwest Florida International (RSW) all carriers
- RSW to BWI route record79.4%
- RSW to MDW route record73.0%
- RSW to STL route record80.2%
- RSW to BNA route record78.2%
- Do airlines run better at their own hubs?
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.