Airport month record
ABQJAN
Albuquerque International Sunport in January 2026
- Departures
- 1,759
- Month
- January 2026
- National, same month
- 79.2%
- Carriers
- 6
Historical statistics for January 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s January. For today’s conditions at ABQ, see live FAA status.
ABQ in January earns an A. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 8 points better than the national rate of 79.2%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 1,759 flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, ABQ's January record is 8 points better than the US average of 79.2%. That gap is worth roughly 78 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
87.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,718 completed departures
Avg delay
73 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.27%
Nationally in January: 4.71%
Whole year
83.1%
ABQ across all twelve months
These figures cover 1,759 departures from Albuquerque International Sunport in January 2026. 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
January next to ABQ's other months
Against ABQ's own year, January ran 4 points better than the twelve-month rate of 83.1%, which makes it number two of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where January stands out: 2.27% of scheduled departures were called off, 2.6 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, December ran 83.2% on time and February 87.3%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.
| 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 | 2,054 | 83.2% | 69 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| January 2026 (this page) | 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 January
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 11 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am404 flights91.9%
- 8am–11am343 flights86.1%
- 11am–2pm409 flights89.2%
- 2pm–5pm354 flights83.7%
- 5pm–8pm237 flights81.3%
- 8pm–5am12 flights—
Scale runs 75% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.9% of the time, against 81.3% for the evening window. That is 11 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 409 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 93.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 81.2%, a spread of 12 points.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at ABQ in January
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 879 | 88.2% | 59 min | 1.71% | A |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 355 | 92.7% | 66 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 172 | 74.8% | 124 min | 9.88% | C− |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 141 | 77.7% | 86 min | 1.42% | B |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 129 | 86.5% | 53 min | 2.33% | A |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 71 | 91.2% | 45 min | 4.23% | A− |
Route by route
Busiest routes out of ABQ in January
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ABQ to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 293 | 85.1% | 56 min | 1.71% | A |
| ABQ to DEN · Denverthin sample | 223 | 85.1% | 47 min | 0.45% | A+ |
| ABQ to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 158 | 92.4% | 56 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| ABQ to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 154 | 83.3% | 176 min | 10.39% | B− |
| ABQ to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 129 | 90.2% | 45 min | 4.65% | A− |
| ABQ to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 128 | 87.4% | 65 min | 0.78% | A+ |
| ABQ to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample | 86 | 94.2% | 117 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| ABQ to HOU · Houstonthin sample | 71 | 87.3% | 32 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| ABQ to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 71 | 91.2% | 45 min | 4.23% | A− |
| ABQ to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 67 | 73.1% | 86 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| ABQ to SAN · San Diegothin sample | 57 | 87.3% | 36 min | 1.75% | A |
| ABQ to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 54 | 87.0% | 107 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| ABQ to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 49 | 89.4% | 77 min | 4.08% | A− |
| ABQ to AUS · Austinthin sample | 43 | 83.3% | 93 min | 2.33% | B |
| ABQ to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 32 | 87.1% | 64 min | 3.12% | A− |
| ABQ to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 32 | 93.5% | 182 min | 3.12% | A− |
Delay causes
What held ABQ up in January
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 16,000 reported delay minutes.
- 39%Carrier
- 31%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 39%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 6,375 of the 16,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 16,448 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.27% against a national 4.71%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.06%.
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.4% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 7.6% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
What to do with this
Flying from ABQ in January
For a January trip through ABQ: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 87.0% on time with 2.27% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- Albuquerque International Sunport (ABQ), the whole year
- ABQ in September85.7%
- ABQ in October84.1%
- ABQ in November85.6%
- ABQ in December83.2%
- 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 ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.