Carrier performance at one airport
UA→PHX
United Airlines at Phoenix Sky Harbor International
- Departures
- 10,185
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 7
- Rank here
- #4 of 9
United Airlines at Phoenix lands a B+, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. Roughly one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 10,185 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 10,708 at 86.6% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, United Airlines runs 2 points ahead of the 79.1% 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
81.5%
10,053 completed departures
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.79%
At PHX, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at PHX
These figures cover 10,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 7 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 86.6% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 70.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,139 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 10,708 | 86.6% | 84 min | 1.06% | A |
| Envoy Air | 9,964 | 85.3% | 49 min | 0.70% | A+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 5,615 | 85.1% | 56 min | 0.68% | A+ |
| United Airlines (this page) | 10,185 | 81.5% | 77 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 27,166 | 81.3% | 78 min | 0.80% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 56,179 | 79.4% | 70 min | 1.13% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 7,555 | 79.0% | 84 min | 1.28% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 67,877 | 75.1% | 49 min | 0.65% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,139 | 70.6% | 68 min | 2.37% | C |
The spread between Delta and JetBlue is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
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 | 2,379 | 83.1% | 78 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| PHX to ORD · Chicago | 1,943 | 77.7% | 77 min | 0.46% | B+ |
| PHX to IAH · Houston | 1,787 | 83.8% | 86 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| PHX to EWR · Newark | 1,484 | 80.7% | 80 min | 1.89% | B |
| PHX to SFO · San Francisco | 1,454 | 76.3% | 64 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| PHX to IAD · Washington | 791 | 89.0% | 75 min | 0.76% | A+ |
| PHX to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 347 | 87.6% | 107 min | 0.29% | A+ |
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 16 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,820 flights91.2%
- 8am–11am2,217 flights83.2%
- 11am–2pm2,179 flights78.2%
- 2pm–5pm2,004 flights77.1%
- 5pm–8pm1,228 flights75.4%
- 8pm–5am737 flights83.8%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.2% of the time, against 75.4% for the evening window. That is 16 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 75.7% on time, 13 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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 40%National Airspace System
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
40% 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 57,000 minutes out of 143,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations are rare at 0.79%, below the national 1.80% 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.
7.0% 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 a little over an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 10,185 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 July 75.7%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else.
Common questions
United Airlines at PHX
How often is United Airlines at PHX 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 18.5% of the 10,185 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% 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 86.6% on time across 10,708 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 70.6%, 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 91.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 75.4%, 16 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 United Airlines at PHX?
July is the weakest month at 75.7% on time, compared with 88.5% in February. Across the year that is 13 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.