Carrier performance at one airport
UA→PHX
United Airlines at Phoenix Sky Harbor International
- Departures
- 10,074
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 7
- Rank here
- #5 of 9
United Airlines at Phoenix lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 10,074 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 10,637 at 86.1% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, United Airlines runs 2 points ahead of the 77.9% weighted average across all carriers at PHX. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
80.3%
9,939 completed departures
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.78%
At PHX, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at PHX
These figures cover 10,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 6 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 PHX, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.1% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 70.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,102 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 10,637 | 86.1% | 86 min | 1.14% | A |
| Alaska Airlines | 5,685 | 84.9% | 54 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| Envoy Air | 11,150 | 84.0% | 50 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 27,507 | 80.3% | 78 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| United Airlines (this page) | 10,074 | 80.3% | 77 min | 0.78% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 7,636 | 78.9% | 82 min | 1.18% | B |
| American Airlines | 56,697 | 78.5% | 71 min | 1.13% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 66,973 | 73.2% | 49 min | 0.61% | C+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,102 | 70.2% | 77 min | 3.27% | C− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 3.3% 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
Where United Airlines flies from PHX
United Airlines operates 7 routes out of PHX 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHX to DEN · Denver | 2,391 | 83.3% | 78 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| PHX to ORD · Chicago | 1,990 | 75.7% | 89 min | 0.75% | B+ |
| PHX to IAH · Houston | 1,772 | 85.6% | 82 min | 0.40% | A+ |
| PHX to SFO · San Francisco | 1,489 | 67.7% | 59 min | 0.47% | C+ |
| PHX to EWR · Newark | 1,484 | 82.2% | 86 min | 1.95% | B |
| PHX to IAD · Washington | 704 | 90.8% | 57 min | 0.71% | A+ |
| PHX to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 244 | 86.3% | 61 min | 1.23% | A |
Flight by flight
United Airlines flight numbers from PHX
1 United Airlines flight numbers leaving PHX flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
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 17 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am1,831 flights89.2%
- 8am–11am2,301 flights82.0%
- 11am–2pm2,205 flights78.4%
- 2pm–5pm1,959 flights75.9%
- 5pm–8pm1,186 flights72.5%
- 8pm–5am592 flights83.2%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.2% of the time, against 72.5% for the evening window. That is 17 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 2,301 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
August is the worst month at 68.5% on time, 20 points below February, the best at 88.5%. 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 991 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 45%National Airspace System
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%Carrier
- 2%Extreme weather
45% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 68,000 minutes out of 150,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 149,962 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.78%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 10,074 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. February runs 88.5% on time and August 68.5%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 9,939 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
United Airlines at PHX
How often is United Airlines at PHX delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.7% of the 10,074 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on United Airlines at PHX?
Delta Air Lines leads at 86.1% on time across 10,637 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 70.2%, a gap of 16 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 United Airlines at PHX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 72.5%, 17 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 August delays on United Airlines at PHX?
August is the weakest month at 68.5% on time, compared with 88.5% in February. 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
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) all carriers
- PHX to DEN route record83.3%
- PHX to ORD route record75.7%
- PHX to IAH route record85.6%
- PHX to SFO route record67.7%
- Denver, Salt Lake City, Phoenix and Las Vegas: the Mountain West hubs
- Do airlines run better at their own hubs?
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.