Airline on-time record
NK
Spirit Airlines
- Flights
- 99,981
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Airports
- 25
- US rank
- #13 by volume
Spirit Airlines carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 99,981 flights, of which Las Vegas (LAS) flew 5,509 at 85.0% on time.
Las Vegas (LAS) is the most reliable of the 25 airports covered here at 85.0% on time across 5,509 flights.
Key figures
On time
72.0%
National average is 77.3%
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
4.52%
National rate is 1.89%
Largest base
FLL
14,820 departures, 65.2% on time
These figures cover 100,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Airport by airport
Where Spirit Airlines runs well, and where it does not
The choice of airport is not cosmetic here. Las Vegas (LAS) arrives on time 85.0% of the time; Boston (BOS) manages 61.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,737 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airport | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 14,820 | 65.2% | 70 min | 4.47% | C− |
| MCO · Orlando | 11,307 | 70.1% | 67 min | 4.34% | C− |
| DTW · Detroit | 6,187 | 73.9% | 70 min | 3.64% | C− |
| EWR · Newark | 5,960 | 68.1% | 80 min | 7.27% | C− |
| LAS · Las Vegas | 5,509 | 85.0% | 87 min | 1.89% | A |
| IAH · Houston | 4,114 | 74.5% | 73 min | 3.23% | C− |
| LGA · New York | 3,953 | 70.8% | 80 min | 6.96% | C− |
| ATL · Atlanta | 3,886 | 70.7% | 77 min | 4.01% | C− |
| ORD · Chicago | 3,558 | 63.4% | 83 min | 5.99% | D− |
| DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,241 | 74.0% | 74 min | 3.95% | C− |
| MIA · Miami | 2,803 | 65.3% | 75 min | 5.35% | C− |
| LAX · Los Angeles | 2,730 | 76.4% | 74 min | 2.97% | B |
| TPA · Tampa | 2,289 | 73.1% | 75 min | 3.76% | C− |
| MSY · New Orleans | 2,250 | 76.7% | 73 min | 3.11% | B− |
| BWI · Baltimore | 2,160 | 78.6% | 74 min | 3.29% | B− |
| CLT · Charlotte | 2,106 | 74.6% | 68 min | 5.27% | C− |
| SJU · San Juan | 2,066 | 69.5% | 78 min | 5.23% | C− |
| BNA · Nashville | 1,740 | 76.8% | 80 min | 4.25% | B− |
| BOS · Boston | 1,737 | 61.6% | 80 min | 5.87% | D− |
| PHL · Philadelphia | 1,658 | 74.2% | 69 min | 5.67% | C− |
| ACY · Atlantic City | 1,595 | 80.9% | 76 min | 5.83% | B− |
| MYR · Myrtle Beach | 1,401 | 75.5% | 87 min | 6.07% | B− |
| IND · Indianapolis | 1,056 | 83.8% | 93 min | 3.50% | B− |
| RSW · Fort Myers | 974 | 65.7% | 75 min | 5.85% | C− |
| PIT · Pittsburgh | 935 | 79.0% | 69 min | 4.71% | B− |
Newark (EWR) cancels 7.3% 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
Busiest Spirit Airlines routes
These are the 25 routes Spirit Airlines flies most often, each against its network-wide 72.0%. Route-level variation inside a single airline is routinely wider than the gap between two airlines nationally.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLL to ATL | 1,093 | 58.6% | 68 min | 4.12% | D− |
| ATL to FLL | 1,092 | 64.5% | 72 min | 4.40% | D− |
| EWR to FLL | 888 | 69.6% | 78 min | 7.88% | C− |
| FLL to EWR | 887 | 58.9% | 70 min | 6.54% | D− |
| MCO to EWR | 886 | 68.0% | 68 min | 6.43% | C− |
| EWR to MCO | 884 | 71.3% | 84 min | 6.45% | C− |
| LGA to FLL | 838 | 68.9% | 74 min | 7.16% | C− |
| FLL to LGA | 834 | 63.5% | 79 min | 7.55% | D− |
| DTW to LGA | 829 | 67.9% | 76 min | 8.32% | C− |
| LGA to DTW | 827 | 72.1% | 88 min | 8.10% | C− |
| DTW to MCO | 777 | 77.2% | 65 min | 1.16% | B |
| ORD to FLL | 776 | 61.9% | 82 min | 4.90% | D− |
| FLL to ORD | 775 | 57.7% | 73 min | 3.48% | D− |
| MCO to DTW | 771 | 67.9% | 67 min | 2.20% | C |
| IAH to FLL | 704 | 70.9% | 77 min | 1.99% | C |
| FLL to IAH | 698 | 71.7% | 70 min | 2.15% | C |
| FLL to TPA | 692 | 68.8% | 69 min | 2.89% | C |
| TPA to FLL | 691 | 67.8% | 65 min | 3.91% | C− |
| BWI to FLL | 687 | 78.0% | 63 min | 4.66% | B− |
| FLL to BWI | 684 | 70.1% | 69 min | 4.68% | C− |
| BUR to LAS | 670 | 84.0% | 72 min | 3.13% | B− |
| LAS to BUR | 668 | 88.4% | 75 min | 2.69% | A |
| FLL to DTW | 640 | 58.3% | 74 min | 3.28% | D− |
| DTW to FLL | 630 | 66.8% | 68 min | 3.17% | C− |
| MCO to FLL | 613 | 70.4% | 59 min | 1.96% | C |
Departure window
The best time of day to fly Spirit Airlines
Departure time matters more here than the choice of airport. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against 23 points between the best and worst airport.
- 5am–8am20,374 flights84.6%
- 8am–11am15,119 flights77.9%
- 11am–2pm13,455 flights72.4%
- 2pm–5pm14,931 flights66.9%
- 5pm–8pm17,205 flights63.4%
- 8pm–5am18,897 flights65.0%
Scale runs 55% to 90%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 63.4% on time, against 84.6% 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 20,374 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Spirit Airlines through the calendar
Spirit's year swings by 30 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
September is the best month on the calendar at 84.2% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. September was the busiest month here, with 15,058 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 64.6%, a spread of 15 points.
Delay causes
What holds Spirit Airlines up
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 1.99 million reported delay minutes.
- 36%National Airspace System
- 32%Carrier
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
36% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No airport can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 720,000 minutes out of 1.99 million, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 1,992,131 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 84.6% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.52%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in twenty cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
12.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
99,981 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.
What to do with this
Booking Spirit Airlines
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.52% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 95,300 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Spirit Airlines reliability questions
How often is Spirit Airlines 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 28.0% of the 99,981 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airport does Spirit Airlines run best from?
Las Vegas (LAS) leads at 85.0% on time across 5,509 flights. Boston (BOS) is at the other end on 61.6%, a gap of 23 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 Spirit Airlines?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 84.6% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 63.4%, 21 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 March delays on Spirit Airlines?
March is the weakest month at 54.2% on time, compared with 84.2% in September. Across the year that is 30 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
- Spirit Airlines at FLL — Fort Lauderdale65.2%
- Spirit Airlines at MCO — Orlando70.1%
- Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County (DTW) delay statistics73.9%
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics68.1%
- Harry Reid International (LAS) delay statistics85.0%
- FLL to ATL route record58.6%
- ATL to FLL route record64.5%
- EWR to FLL route record69.6%
- FLL to EWR route record58.9%
- US airline on-time rankings: 14 carriers, four measures
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
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.