Nashville, TN · departure reliability
BNA
Nashville International
- Departures
- 108,466
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Carriers
- 13
- US rank
- #21 by volume
Nashville
Nashville International lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 108,466 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,282 at 84.6% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the thirteen carriers covered here at 84.6% on time across 9,282 flights.
Key figures
On time
76.6%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
65 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.53%
National rate is 1.80%
Best carrier
Delta
84.6% on time here
These figures cover 108,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 5 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 84.6% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 70.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,161 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 60,657 | 76.4% | 51 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 9,458 | 75.6% | 97 min | 2.34% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 9,282 | 84.6% | 84 min | 1.83% | B |
| Republic Airways | 7,294 | 74.6% | 69 min | 3.72% | C− |
| United Airlines | 6,670 | 76.9% | 85 min | 1.41% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 3,107 | 75.7% | 101 min | 1.87% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,725 | 75.5% | 81 min | 3.49% | B− |
| Allegiant Air | 2,319 | 76.1% | 97 min | 0.60% | B+ |
| Envoy Air | 2,120 | 74.8% | 69 min | 2.55% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,417 | 72.2% | 71 min | 3.46% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,388 | 72.2% | 84 min | 5.55% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,161 | 70.1% | 49 min | 1.12% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 868 | 72.0% | 89 min | 1.84% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 5.5% 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 76.6%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BNA to ORD · Chicago | 5,034 | 70.0% | 93 min | 2.60% | C |
| BNA to DCA · Washington | 4,305 | 73.6% | 63 min | 3.48% | C− |
| BNA to ATL · Atlanta | 4,223 | 84.3% | 66 min | 1.80% | B |
| BNA to LGA · New York | 3,843 | 72.2% | 77 min | 4.01% | C− |
| BNA to DEN · Denver | 3,673 | 75.7% | 62 min | 0.63% | B+ |
| BNA to CLT · Charlotte | 3,570 | 77.9% | 80 min | 1.79% | B |
| BNA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,510 | 74.1% | 94 min | 3.30% | C− |
| BNA to MCO · Orlando | 3,470 | 75.5% | 59 min | 1.53% | B |
| BNA to AUS · Austin | 3,025 | 81.6% | 67 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| BNA to BOS · Boston | 2,959 | 69.0% | 72 min | 1.96% | C |
| BNA to PHL · Philadelphia | 2,784 | 74.0% | 79 min | 2.23% | C |
| BNA to TPA · Tampa | 2,492 | 75.2% | 54 min | 0.96% | B+ |
| BNA to MIA · Miami | 2,472 | 75.2% | 73 min | 1.38% | B |
| BNA to DTW · Detroit | 2,423 | 79.7% | 71 min | 1.28% | B |
| BNA to DAL · Dallas | 2,412 | 78.7% | 60 min | 1.00% | B |
| BNA to PHX · Phoenix | 2,364 | 78.8% | 66 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| BNA to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,277 | 77.5% | 61 min | 1.10% | B |
| BNA to RDU · Raleigh | 2,212 | 74.7% | 53 min | 1.90% | C |
| BNA to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 2,168 | 75.4% | 62 min | 1.98% | B |
| BNA to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,016 | 78.2% | 51 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| BNA to MDW · Chicago | 1,908 | 78.2% | 52 min | 1.31% | B |
| BNA to BWI · Baltimore | 1,855 | 78.6% | 53 min | 2.21% | B |
| BNA to EWR · Newark | 1,841 | 73.7% | 91 min | 3.20% | C− |
| BNA to HOU · Houston | 1,797 | 78.8% | 46 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| BNA to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,700 | 84.1% | 59 min | 1.35% | 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 25 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am20,506 flights89.1%
- 8am–11am18,796 flights88.4%
- 11am–2pm18,296 flights78.4%
- 2pm–5pm20,103 flights69.1%
- 5pm–8pm21,151 flights64.5%
- 8pm–5am9,614 flights66.2%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 64.5% on time, against 89.1% 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.
Across the year
When BNA runs late
BNA's year swings by 16 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 69.6% on time, 16 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.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.1%. 9 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why BNA gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 1.62 million delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 1.62 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit.
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 89.1% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.53% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.23%.
7.5% 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 about an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
108,466 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 69.6%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else.
Common questions
BNA delay questions
How often is Nashville (BNA) delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.4% of the 108,466 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Nashville (BNA)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 84.6% on time across 9,282 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 70.1%, a gap of 15 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 89.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 64.5%, 25 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 69.6% on time, compared with 85.2% in September. Across the year that is 16 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.