Airline on-time record
NK
Spirit Airlines
- Flights
- 152,066
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Airports
- 25
- US rank
- #12 by volume
Spirit Airlines carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.4% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four 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 152,066 flights, of which Indianapolis (IND) flew 1,546 at 82.5% on time.
Indianapolis (IND) is the most reliable of the 25 airports covered here at 82.5% on time across 1,546 flights.
Key figures
On time
73.3%
National average is 77.4%
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
3.41%
National rate is 1.80%
Largest base
FLL
20,066 departures, 68.3% on time
These figures cover 152,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Airport by airport
Where Spirit Airlines runs well, and where it does not
The choice of airport is not cosmetic here. Indianapolis (IND) arrives on time 82.5% of the time; Boston (BOS) manages 66.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,654 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airport | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 20,066 | 68.3% | 70 min | 3.49% | C− |
| MCO · Orlando | 16,236 | 69.7% | 68 min | 3.26% | C− |
| LAS · Las Vegas | 10,027 | 81.9% | 71 min | 1.34% | B |
| DTW · Detroit | 9,657 | 76.9% | 71 min | 2.65% | B |
| EWR · Newark | 8,204 | 70.0% | 83 min | 6.34% | C− |
| IAH · Houston | 6,056 | 74.0% | 74 min | 2.77% | C |
| ATL · Atlanta | 6,049 | 70.5% | 75 min | 2.89% | C |
| LGA · New York | 5,298 | 72.9% | 84 min | 6.02% | C− |
| ORD · Chicago | 5,127 | 67.0% | 84 min | 4.45% | C− |
| DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 5,055 | 73.1% | 72 min | 2.85% | C |
| LAX · Los Angeles | 4,592 | 79.4% | 75 min | 2.09% | B |
| MIA · Miami | 3,864 | 66.2% | 79 min | 4.35% | C− |
| BWI · Baltimore | 3,671 | 76.2% | 80 min | 2.72% | B |
| TPA · Tampa | 3,481 | 74.1% | 77 min | 2.79% | C |
| MSY · New Orleans | 3,355 | 76.1% | 75 min | 2.65% | B |
| CLT · Charlotte | 3,149 | 75.4% | 72 min | 3.87% | B− |
| SJU · San Juan | 3,030 | 73.3% | 75 min | 3.80% | C− |
| BNA · Nashville | 2,725 | 75.5% | 81 min | 3.49% | B− |
| BOS · Boston | 2,654 | 66.0% | 78 min | 4.37% | C− |
| MYR · Myrtle Beach | 2,646 | 75.6% | 86 min | 3.89% | B− |
| PHL · Philadelphia | 2,587 | 71.8% | 72 min | 4.17% | C− |
| ACY · Atlantic City | 2,347 | 81.9% | 82 min | 4.26% | B− |
| IND · Indianapolis | 1,546 | 82.5% | 89 min | 2.98% | B |
| CMH · Columbus | 1,372 | 74.8% | 80 min | 3.72% | C− |
| PIT · Pittsburgh | 1,348 | 80.0% | 74 min | 3.34% | B− |
Newark (EWR) cancels 6.3% 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 73.3%. 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 | 1,470 | 60.7% | 68 min | 3.27% | D− |
| ATL to FLL | 1,469 | 65.4% | 69 min | 3.47% | C− |
| MCO to EWR | 1,182 | 68.4% | 74 min | 5.50% | C− |
| EWR to MCO | 1,181 | 71.4% | 87 min | 5.84% | C− |
| EWR to FLL | 1,135 | 70.9% | 83 min | 6.70% | C− |
| FLL to EWR | 1,131 | 61.1% | 71 min | 5.75% | D− |
| DTW to LGA | 1,062 | 69.7% | 75 min | 7.25% | C− |
| LGA to DTW | 1,061 | 75.0% | 95 min | 7.35% | B− |
| DTW to MCO | 1,042 | 78.5% | 65 min | 0.96% | B+ |
| LGA to FLL | 1,041 | 70.0% | 81 min | 6.63% | C− |
| FLL to LGA | 1,036 | 66.4% | 77 min | 6.18% | C− |
| MCO to DTW | 1,036 | 70.1% | 66 min | 1.74% | C |
| BUR to LAS | 1,030 | 82.7% | 68 min | 2.62% | B |
| LAS to BUR | 1,028 | 87.5% | 72 min | 2.14% | A |
| ORD to FLL | 988 | 66.5% | 84 min | 4.15% | C− |
| FLL to ORD | 985 | 62.3% | 73 min | 3.05% | D− |
| IAH to FLL | 954 | 71.1% | 73 min | 1.68% | C |
| FLL to IAH | 949 | 72.5% | 75 min | 1.58% | C |
| BWI to FLL | 916 | 77.4% | 66 min | 3.71% | B− |
| FLL to BWI | 914 | 70.0% | 67 min | 3.83% | C− |
| FLL to DTW | 898 | 63.9% | 77 min | 2.45% | D |
| SNA to LAS | 890 | 88.9% | 80 min | 1.46% | A |
| LAS to SNA | 889 | 87.3% | 67 min | 1.35% | A |
| DTW to FLL | 887 | 71.7% | 71 min | 2.25% | C |
| FLL to TPA | 886 | 70.9% | 67 min | 2.37% | 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 23 points, against 17 points between the best and worst airport. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am31,014 flights86.6%
- 8am–11am22,982 flights80.5%
- 11am–2pm20,525 flights74.7%
- 2pm–5pm22,713 flights67.2%
- 5pm–8pm25,780 flights63.6%
- 8pm–5am29,052 flights65.9%
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 63.6% on time, against 86.6% 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.
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.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.6%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
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 2.93 million reported delay minutes.
- 39%National Airspace System
- 29%Carrier
- 29%Late-arriving aircraft
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
39% 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 1.15 million minutes out of 2.93 million, against a national NAS share of 21%.
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 86.6% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.41%, against 1.80% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
152,066 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 3.41% 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.
Common questions
Spirit Airlines reliability questions
How often is Spirit Airlines delayed?
About 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 26.7% of the 152,066 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airport does Spirit Airlines run best from?
Indianapolis (IND) leads at 82.5% on time across 1,546 flights. Boston (BOS) is at the other end on 66.0%, a gap of 17 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 86.6% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 63.6%, 23 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 Lauderdale68.3%
- Spirit Airlines at MCO — Orlando69.7%
- Spirit Airlines at LAS — Las Vegas81.9%
- Spirit Airlines at DTW — Detroit76.9%
- Spirit Airlines at EWR — Newark70.0%
- FLL to ATL route record60.7%
- ATL to FLL route record65.4%
- MCO to EWR route record68.4%
- EWR to MCO route record71.4%
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.