Carrier performance at one airport
WN→TPA
Southwest Airlines at Tampa International
- Departures
- 23,749
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #4 of 9
Southwest Airlines at Tampa lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 55 minutes on average. That rests on 23,749 flights, of which United Airlines flew 8,554 at 82.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs half a point behind the 78.2% 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
77.5%
23,435 completed departures
Avg delay
55 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.99%
At TPA, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at TPA
These figures cover 24,000 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 TPA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 82.2% of the time; Envoy Air manages 72.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,109 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 8,554 | 82.2% | 76 min | 0.85% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 14,082 | 80.6% | 79 min | 1.75% | B |
| American Airlines | 13,821 | 78.1% | 94 min | 1.96% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 23,749 | 77.5% | 55 min | 0.99% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 6,533 | 77.2% | 82 min | 1.96% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 5,131 | 73.9% | 77 min | 3.49% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 986 | 73.6% | 53 min | 0.91% | C+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,289 | 73.1% | 75 min | 3.76% | C− |
| Envoy Air | 1,109 | 72.5% | 70 min | 1.98% | C |
Spirit Airlines cancels 3.8% 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 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 | 2,261 | 81.3% | 54 min | 1.64% | B |
| TPA to BNA · Nashville | 1,772 | 74.9% | 51 min | 0.96% | C+ |
| TPA to MDW · Chicago | 1,520 | 74.7% | 56 min | 2.17% | C |
| TPA to DAL · Dallas | 1,291 | 76.3% | 54 min | 1.47% | B |
| TPA to DEN · Denver | 1,281 | 78.5% | 52 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| TPA to STL · St. Louis | 1,208 | 83.0% | 56 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| TPA to AUS · Austin | 1,143 | 79.9% | 51 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| TPA to HOU · Houston | 1,032 | 79.0% | 50 min | 0.48% | B+ |
| TPA to CMH · Columbus | 907 | 81.2% | 54 min | 1.21% | B |
| TPA to IND · Indianapolis | 880 | 80.7% | 72 min | 0.91% | B+ |
| TPA to MSY · New Orleans | 855 | 80.9% | 56 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| TPA to PIT · Pittsburgh | 796 | 75.4% | 59 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| TPA to LAS · Las Vegas | 733 | 79.3% | 51 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| TPA to ATL · Atlanta | 731 | 76.2% | 63 min | 1.50% | B |
| TPA to DCA · Washington | 699 | 75.1% | 51 min | 1.72% | B |
| TPA to MCI · Kansas City | 628 | 78.5% | 62 min | 0.64% | B+ |
| TPA to BUF · Buffalo | 626 | 79.5% | 61 min | 1.28% | B |
| TPA to PHX · Phoenix | 484 | 82.0% | 64 min | 0.21% | B+ |
| TPA to SJU · San Juan | 470 | 66.5% | 52 min | 0.43% | C+ |
| TPA to MKE · Milwaukee | 453 | 73.1% | 54 min | 1.32% | C |
| TPA to BHM · Birmingham | 421 | 79.3% | 51 min | 0.24% | B+ |
| TPA to SDF · Louisville | 404 | 85.6% | 51 min | 0.50% | A+ |
| TPA to RDU · Raleigh | 383 | 76.1% | 57 min | 0.78% | B+ |
| TPA to SAT · San Antonio | 367 | 77.5% | 49 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| TPA to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample | 364 | 68.3% | 54 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 39 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am4,702 flights94.5%
- 8am–11am5,211 flights87.1%
- 11am–2pm3,348 flights82.1%
- 2pm–5pm4,092 flights69.7%
- 5pm–8pm4,139 flights61.8%
- 8pm–5am2,257 flights55.5%
Scale runs 45% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 55.5% on time, against 94.5% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 5,211 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 71.8% on time, 17 points below September, the best at 88.3%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 2,414 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%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. Across 288,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 14 to one. The split is drawn from 287,761 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 0.99% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.33%.
6.2% 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 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
23,749 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 July 71.8%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 23,435 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at TPA
How often is Southwest Airlines at TPA delayed?
Roughly 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 22.5% of the 23,749 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at TPA?
United Airlines leads at 82.2% on time across 8,554 flights. Envoy Air is at the other end on 72.5%, a gap of 10 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 94.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 55.5%, 39 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 TPA?
July is the weakest month at 71.8% on time, compared with 88.3% in September. Across the year that is 17 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.