Nashville, TN · departure reliability
BNA
Nashville International
- Departures
- 110,118
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 13
- US rank
- #21 by volume
Nashville
Nashville International sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 110,118 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,366 at 83.6% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the thirteen carriers covered here at 83.6% on time across 9,366 flights.
Key figures
On time
74.8%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
63 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.50%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
83.6% on time here
These figures cover 110,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of BNA
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 83.6% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 71.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,596 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 62,867 | 72.9% | 50 min | 0.82% | C+ |
| American Airlines | 9,410 | 77.7% | 101 min | 2.08% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 9,366 | 83.6% | 79 min | 1.83% | B |
| Republic Airways | 7,044 | 75.4% | 69 min | 3.63% | B− |
| United Airlines | 7,009 | 76.2% | 85 min | 1.48% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,977 | 75.5% | 101 min | 2.25% | B |
| Envoy Air | 2,385 | 75.1% | 70 min | 2.35% | B |
| Allegiant Air | 2,232 | 75.5% | 97 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,740 | 76.8% | 80 min | 4.25% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,596 | 71.2% | 76 min | 5.39% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,428 | 72.4% | 103 min | 5.81% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,162 | 72.0% | 46 min | 0.95% | C+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 902 | 74.3% | 97 min | 2.11% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.8% 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 routes out of BNA
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from BNA, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 74.8%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNA to ORD · Chicago | 5,045 | 70.9% | 96 min | 2.91% | C |
| BNA to DCA · Washington | 4,387 | 71.3% | 65 min | 3.10% | C− |
| BNA to ATL · Atlanta | 4,271 | 82.7% | 70 min | 1.66% | B |
| BNA to LGA · New York | 3,785 | 70.7% | 72 min | 3.65% | C− |
| BNA to DEN · Denver | 3,632 | 74.2% | 64 min | 0.61% | C+ |
| BNA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,543 | 76.3% | 95 min | 2.96% | B |
| BNA to MCO · Orlando | 3,528 | 73.8% | 60 min | 1.59% | C |
| BNA to CLT · Charlotte | 3,479 | 78.2% | 82 min | 1.70% | B |
| BNA to AUS · Austin | 3,033 | 80.4% | 65 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| BNA to BOS · Boston | 2,940 | 67.6% | 74 min | 2.55% | C |
| BNA to PHL · Philadelphia | 2,852 | 73.3% | 80 min | 3.05% | C− |
| BNA to MIA · Miami | 2,534 | 75.3% | 76 min | 1.22% | B |
| BNA to TPA · Tampa | 2,479 | 72.7% | 51 min | 0.89% | C+ |
| BNA to DAL · Dallas | 2,471 | 75.4% | 55 min | 1.05% | B |
| BNA to DTW · Detroit | 2,410 | 77.4% | 62 min | 1.29% | B |
| BNA to PHX · Phoenix | 2,366 | 77.5% | 64 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| BNA to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,332 | 76.0% | 58 min | 0.77% | B+ |
| BNA to RDU · Raleigh | 2,223 | 74.8% | 53 min | 1.89% | C |
| BNA to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 2,177 | 73.8% | 63 min | 2.43% | C |
| BNA to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,035 | 75.9% | 57 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| BNA to MDW · Chicago | 1,898 | 73.6% | 50 min | 1.21% | C |
| BNA to EWR · Newark | 1,883 | 75.0% | 84 min | 3.13% | B− |
| BNA to HOU · Houston | 1,819 | 74.9% | 46 min | 0.77% | C+ |
| BNA to BWI · Baltimore | 1,794 | 76.8% | 53 min | 1.73% | B |
| BNA to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,776 | 81.2% | 50 min | 1.63% | B |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave BNA
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 26 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am19,334 flights88.7%
- 8am–11am20,469 flights86.1%
- 11am–2pm18,632 flights76.2%
- 2pm–5pm19,889 flights67.8%
- 5pm–8pm22,137 flights62.3%
- 8pm–5am9,657 flights63.0%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 62.3% on time, against 88.7% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 22,137 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter BNA departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from Nashville (BNA), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.7% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 62.3%, a wide gap of 26.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.7%
- 8–11am86.1%
- 11am–2pm76.2%
- 2–5pm67.8%
- 5–8pm62.3%
- 8pm–5am63.0%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When BNA runs late
BNA's year swings by 21 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.
July is the worst month at 64.2% on time, 21 points below September, the best at 85.2%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 10,098 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.0%, a spread of 10 points.
BNA month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into BNA
3 European airports send scheduled passenger flights to BNA, 1,427 flights a year in both directions by the DOT's international count. The DOT keeps no delay record for international flights; the UK routes carry the CAA's departure punctuality, and every route sets its departure airport's EUROCONTROL figures beside BNA's own record above.
Delay causes
Why BNA gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 1.72 million delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 19%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 1.72 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 to one. The split is drawn from 1,722,429 reported delay minutes.
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 88.7% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.50% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.
7.8% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
110,118 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
Flying out of BNA
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 85.2% on time and July 64.2%, a swing of 21 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 108,168 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
BNA delay questions
How often is Nashville (BNA) delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 25.2% of the 110,118 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Nashville (BNA)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 83.6% on time across 9,366 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 71.2%, a gap of 12 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 Nashville (BNA)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 62.3%, 26 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 Nashville (BNA)?
July is the weakest month at 64.2% on time, compared with 85.2% in September. Across the year that is 21 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
- BNA to ORD — Chicago70.9%
- BNA to DCA — Washington71.3%
- BNA to ATL — Atlanta82.7%
- BNA to LGA — New York70.7%
- BNA to DEN — Denver74.2%
- BNA to DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth76.3%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record72.9%
- American Airlines on-time record77.7%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record83.6%
- Republic Airways on-time record75.4%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- US airports with the biggest gap between their best and worst month
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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.