Airport month record

ABQDEC

Albuquerque International Sunport in December 2025

Departures: 2,054
Month: December 2025
National, same month: 73.2%
Carriers: 7

Historical statistics for December 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s December. For today’s conditions at ABQ, see live FAA status.

ABQ in December lands a B+, 10 points better than the national rate of 73.2%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 2,054 flights, of which SkyWest Airlines flew 448 at 86.8% on time.

Set against the rest of the country, ABQ's December record is 10 points better than the US average of 73.2%. That gap is worth roughly 100 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.

On time

83.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,043 completed departures

Avg delay

69 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.44%

Nationally in December: 1.55%

Whole year

83.1%

ABQ across all twelve months

These figures cover 2,054 departures from Albuquerque International Sunport in December 2025. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

December next to ABQ's other months

Against ABQ's own year, December ran level with the twelve-month rate of 83.1%, which makes it number eight of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for ABQ in December, at 0.44% against 0.86% across the year. Either side of it, November ran 85.6% on time and January 87.0%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.

ABQ month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
September 2025	2,049	85.7%	77 min	0.49%	A+
October 2025	2,383	84.1%	75 min	0.38%	B+
November 2025	2,020	85.6%	67 min	1.63%	A
December 2025 (this page)	2,054	83.2%	69 min	0.44%	B+
January 2026	1,759	87.0%	73 min	2.27%	A
February 2026	1,679	87.3%	64 min	0.66%	A+
March 2026	2,011	84.5%	72 min	1.04%	B
April 2026	1,969	83.9%	63 min	0.56%	B+
May 2026	2,151	82.1%	71 min	0.65%	B+
June 2026	2,163	78.0%	69 min	1.06%	B
July 2026	2,227	78.0%	81 min	0.72%	B+
August 2026	2,082	80.3%	73 min	0.67%	B+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave ABQ in December

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 34 points, against 5 points between the best and worst carrier.

5am–8am518 flights91.6%
8am–11am329 flights88.8%
11am–2pm474 flights83.2%
2pm–5pm402 flights72.9%
5pm–8pm281 flights80.4%
8pm–5am50 flights57.1%

Scale runs 50% to 95%.

The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 57.1% on time, against 91.6% 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 518 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.7%, a spread of 12 points.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at ABQ in December

The two carriers here are closely matched: 5 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.

Carriers at ABQ in December 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	1,049	81.9%	57 min	0.38%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	448	86.8%	64 min	0.00%	A+
American Airlinesthin sample	182	78.6%	97 min	0.00%	B+
United Airlinesthin sample	124	86.1%	95 min	0.81%	A+
Envoy Airthin sample	118	85.3%	54 min	1.69%	A
Delta Air Linesthin sample	88	86.2%	219 min	1.14%	A
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	45	75.0%	26 min	2.22%	B

No carrier stands out. SkyWest tops the table at 86.8%, 5 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of ABQ in December

Routes from ABQ in December 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
ABQ to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	320	85.0%	63 min	0.31%	A+
ABQ to DEN · Denverthin sample	267	83.0%	70 min	0.75%	B+
ABQ to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	186	84.3%	61 min	0.00%	B+
ABQ to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	171	77.2%	96 min	0.00%	B+
ABQ to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	147	86.4%	74 min	0.00%	A+
ABQ to DAL · Dallasthin sample	137	84.7%	51 min	0.00%	B+
ABQ to ORD · Chicagothin sample	91	73.0%	51 min	2.20%	C
ABQ to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	90	94.4%	43 min	0.00%	A+
ABQ to ATL · Atlantathin sample	88	86.2%	219 min	1.14%	A
ABQ to HOU · Houstonthin sample	78	87.2%	51 min	0.00%	A+
ABQ to AUS · Austinthin sample	69	79.7%	58 min	0.00%	B+
ABQ to SAN · San Diegothin sample	56	80.0%	31 min	1.79%	B
ABQ to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	55	74.5%	93 min	0.00%	C+
ABQ to IAH · Houstonthin sample	46	95.7%	38 min	0.00%	A+
ABQ to SEA · Seattlethin sample	45	75.0%	26 min	2.22%	B
ABQ to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	33	81.2%	49 min	3.03%	B−
ABQ to MDW · Chicagothin sample	33	93.9%	78 min	0.00%	A+
ABQ to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample	31	77.4%	40 min	0.00%	B+
ABQ to OAK · Oaklandthin sample	31	93.5%	158 min	0.00%	A+
ABQ to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	31	64.5%	55 min	0.00%	D+

Delay causes

What held ABQ up in December

Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 24,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.

Late-arriving aircraft
51%
Carrier
34%
National Airspace System
14%
Extreme weather
1%

51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 24,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 35 to one. The split is drawn from 23,843 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.44%, below the national 1.55% 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.

5.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 10.0%, 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.

What to do with this

Flying from ABQ in December

For a December trip through ABQ: expect 83.2% on time and 0.44% cancelled, going by December 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), the whole year
ABQ in September85.7%
ABQ in October84.1%
ABQ in November85.6%
ABQ in January87.0%
ABQ in February87.3%
ABQ in March84.5%
ABQ in April83.9%
ABQ in May82.1%
ABQ in June78.0%
ABQ in July78.0%
ABQ in August80.3%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated 22 October 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures