Carrier performance at one airport
WN→TPA
Southwest Airlines at Tampa International
- Departures
- 23,901
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #3 of 9
Southwest Airlines at Tampa lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.4%. Roughly 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 23,901 flights, of which United Airlines flew 8,798 at 80.8% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs half a point ahead of the 77.5% weighted average across all carriers at TPA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
78.1%
23,596 completed departures
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.98%
At TPA, this carrier only
Rank here
#3
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at TPA
These figures cover 24,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 4 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 TPA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 80.8% of the time; Envoy Air manages 71.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,103 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 8,798 | 80.8% | 75 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 13,976 | 79.7% | 78 min | 1.65% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 23,901 | 78.1% | 56 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 13,930 | 76.9% | 93 min | 2.08% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 6,609 | 74.4% | 85 min | 1.98% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 3,481 | 74.1% | 77 min | 2.79% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 5,214 | 73.5% | 74 min | 2.57% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 987 | 72.8% | 55 min | 1.01% | C |
| Envoy Air | 1,103 | 71.5% | 73 min | 1.99% | C |
United leads Envoy by 9 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 TPA
Southwest Airlines operates 25 routes out of TPA 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TPA to BWI · Baltimore | 2,345 | 80.4% | 59 min | 2.05% | B |
| TPA to BNA · Nashville | 1,759 | 75.0% | 52 min | 0.85% | B+ |
| TPA to MDW · Chicago | 1,568 | 75.7% | 57 min | 1.98% | B |
| TPA to DEN · Denver | 1,322 | 79.4% | 51 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| TPA to DAL · Dallas | 1,316 | 77.6% | 56 min | 1.14% | B |
| TPA to STL · St. Louis | 1,193 | 83.2% | 56 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| TPA to AUS · Austin | 1,152 | 80.2% | 52 min | 0.26% | B+ |
| TPA to HOU · Houston | 1,030 | 81.6% | 59 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| TPA to IND · Indianapolis | 907 | 80.4% | 71 min | 0.99% | B+ |
| TPA to CMH · Columbus | 905 | 78.9% | 59 min | 1.10% | B |
| TPA to MSY · New Orleans | 853 | 81.3% | 64 min | 0.70% | B+ |
| TPA to PIT · Pittsburgh | 792 | 75.4% | 62 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| TPA to ATL · Atlanta | 732 | 76.1% | 61 min | 1.37% | B |
| TPA to DCA · Washington | 700 | 75.7% | 52 min | 1.43% | B |
| TPA to LAS · Las Vegas | 659 | 80.8% | 49 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| TPA to MCI · Kansas City | 646 | 76.7% | 62 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| TPA to BUF · Buffalo | 635 | 80.8% | 59 min | 1.26% | B |
| TPA to PHX · Phoenix | 497 | 82.1% | 60 min | 0.20% | B+ |
| TPA to SJU · San Juan | 471 | 68.2% | 49 min | 0.42% | C+ |
| TPA to MKE · Milwaukee | 462 | 76.7% | 58 min | 1.30% | B |
| TPA to BHM · Birmingham | 442 | 81.0% | 48 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| TPA to SDF · Louisville | 415 | 85.2% | 44 min | 0.48% | A+ |
| TPA to RDU · Raleigh | 382 | 77.3% | 53 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| TPA to SAT · San Antonio | 380 | 78.8% | 52 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| TPA to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample | 364 | 69.4% | 63 min | 2.20% | 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 40 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am4,845 flights94.8%
- 8am–11am5,013 flights87.3%
- 11am–2pm3,677 flights81.5%
- 2pm–5pm4,167 flights70.7%
- 5pm–8pm4,094 flights63.3%
- 8pm–5am2,105 flights54.6%
Scale runs 45% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 54.6% on time, against 94.8% 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.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
September is the best month on the calendar at 88.3% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
52% 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 289,000 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.
Cancellations sit at 0.98% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.29%.
6.2% 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.
23,901 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 88.3% on time and May 72.8%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of May before you think about anything else.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at TPA
How often is Southwest Airlines at TPA delayed?
Roughly 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 21.9% of the 23,901 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 TPA?
United Airlines leads at 80.8% on time across 8,798 flights. Envoy Air is at the other end on 71.5%, a gap of 9 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 TPA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 54.6%, 40 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 May delays on Southwest Airlines at TPA?
May is the weakest month at 72.8% on time, compared with 88.3% in September. Across the year that is 16 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.