Airport month record

BNASEP

Nashville International in September 2025

Departures: 8,686
Month: September 2025
National, same month: 83.4%
Carriers: 12

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

BNA in September earns an A+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 2 points better than the national rate of 83.4%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about an hour. That rests on 8,686 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 779 at 89.0% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 89.0% on time across 779 flights.

On time

85.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 8,649 completed departures

Avg delay

62 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.24%

Nationally in September: 0.51%

Whole year

76.2%

BNA across all twelve months

These figures cover 8,686 departures from Nashville International in September 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

September next to BNA's other months

Against BNA's own year, September ran 9 points better than the twelve-month rate of 76.2%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations were unusually low for BNA in September, at 0.24% against 1.50% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 80.8% on time and October 75.4%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

BNA month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	9,459	69.6%	80 min	2.09%	C
August 2025	9,012	80.8%	63 min	0.81%	B+
September 2025 (this page)	8,686	85.2%	62 min	0.24%	A+
October 2025	9,841	75.4%	59 min	0.42%	B+
November 2025	8,849	79.0%	68 min	1.22%	B
December 2025	8,776	74.9%	64 min	0.99%	C+
January 2026	7,853	84.3%	66 min	7.07%	B−
February 2026	7,542	81.0%	56 min	1.62%	B
March 2026	9,623	75.1%	71 min	2.31%	B
April 2026	9,617	77.7%	58 min	0.60%	B+
May 2026	9,814	70.6%	57 min	0.57%	C+
June 2026	9,725	65.5%	61 min	0.98%	C+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave BNA in September

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,605 flights93.4%
8am–11am1,562 flights91.8%
11am–2pm1,607 flights87.2%
2pm–5pm1,589 flights79.4%
5pm–8pm1,767 flights77.2%
8pm–5am556 flights78.6%

Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 93.4% of the time, against 77.2% 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. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 1,767 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 89.6% on time and Thursday the weakest at 82.5%. 7 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at BNA in September

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 89.0% of the time; American Airlines manages 79.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 825 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at BNA in September 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	4,731	86.8%	41 min	0.02%	A+
American Airlines	825	79.6%	112 min	1.09%	B
Delta Air Lines	779	89.0%	85 min	0.00%	A+
United Airlines	588	86.7%	79 min	0.51%	A+
Republic Airways	529	83.8%	61 min	0.38%	B+
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	294	84.9%	81 min	1.02%	B
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	256	82.8%	72 min	0.00%	B+
Allegiant Airthin sample	181	81.8%	99 min	0.00%	B+
Envoy Airthin sample	146	79.2%	51 min	0.68%	B+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	140	67.4%	63 min	0.71%	C+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	104	77.7%	75 min	0.96%	B+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	103	77.7%	54 min	0.00%	B+

Delta leads American by 9 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of BNA in September

Routes from BNA in September 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
BNA to ORD · Chicago	397	81.3%	74 min	0.25%	B+
BNA to ATL · Atlantathin sample	343	93.0%	62 min	0.00%	A+
BNA to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	338	79.5%	49 min	0.59%	B+
BNA to DEN · Denverthin sample	315	83.2%	60 min	0.00%	B+
BNA to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	301	84.6%	62 min	0.00%	B+
BNA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	287	77.8%	123 min	2.09%	B
BNA to MCO · Orlandothin sample	265	89.1%	59 min	0.00%	A+
BNA to BOS · Bostonthin sample	257	55.5%	79 min	0.39%	D+
BNA to CLT · Charlottethin sample	254	83.3%	109 min	0.39%	B+
BNA to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	234	78.1%	89 min	0.43%	B+
BNA to AUS · Austinthin sample	228	90.4%	37 min	0.00%	A+
BNA to DTW · Detroitthin sample	201	89.6%	44 min	0.00%	A+
BNA to DAL · Dallasthin sample	194	88.5%	41 min	0.00%	A+
BNA to TPA · Tampathin sample	189	86.8%	38 min	0.00%	A+
BNA to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	188	85.6%	75 min	0.53%	A+
BNA to MIA · Miamithin sample	187	83.7%	87 min	0.53%	B+
BNA to RDU · Raleighthin sample	183	87.4%	34 min	0.00%	A+
BNA to EWR · Newarkthin sample	182	80.6%	110 min	1.10%	B
BNA to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	172	84.8%	59 min	0.58%	B+
BNA to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	170	85.0%	33 min	0.59%	A+
BNA to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	166	87.3%	53 min	0.60%	A+
BNA to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	160	84.3%	54 min	0.00%	B+
BNA to MDW · Chicagothin sample	159	89.9%	28 min	0.00%	A+
BNA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	144	89.4%	69 min	0.00%	A+
BNA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	141	90.8%	29 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held BNA up in September

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 80,000 reported delay minutes.

Carrier
37%
Late-arriving aircraft
37%
National Airspace System
22%
Extreme weather
4%

37% 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 80,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 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 split is drawn from 80,102 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.24%, below the national 0.51% 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.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.3% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 5.4% 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 BNA in September

For a September trip through BNA: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 85.2% on time with 0.24% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Nashville International (BNA), the whole year
BNA in July69.6%
BNA in August80.8%
BNA in October75.4%
BNA in November79.0%
BNA in December74.9%
BNA in January84.3%
BNA in February81.0%
BNA in March75.1%
BNA in April77.7%
BNA in May70.6%
BNA in June65.5%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures