Fort Lauderdale, FL · departure reliability
FLL
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
- Departures
- 90,833
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 9
- US rank
- #26 by volume
Fort Lauderdale
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 7 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 90,833 flights, of which United Airlines flew 9,046 at 82.6% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the nine carriers covered here at 82.6% on time across 9,046 flights.
Key figures
On time
70.4%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
73 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.51%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
82.6% on time here
These figures cover 91,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of FLL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 82.6% of the time; Allegiant Air manages 60.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 4,734 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airways | 25,162 | 66.9% | 68 min | 2.81% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 14,820 | 65.2% | 70 min | 4.47% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 12,987 | 76.7% | 74 min | 2.29% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 11,494 | 71.2% | 54 min | 1.16% | C |
| United Airlines | 9,046 | 82.6% | 81 min | 1.15% | B |
| American Airlines | 7,998 | 74.3% | 99 min | 2.38% | C |
| Allegiant Air | 4,734 | 60.9% | 79 min | 0.91% | D+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 3,948 | 63.0% | 94 min | 3.47% | D− |
| Alaska Airlines | 644 | 72.3% | 53 min | 0.93% | C+ |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.5% 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 FLL
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from FLL, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 70.4%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLL to ATL · Atlanta | 7,366 | 71.0% | 74 min | 2.59% | C |
| FLL to LGA · New York | 4,714 | 64.8% | 76 min | 4.71% | D− |
| FLL to EWR · Newark | 4,666 | 71.1% | 75 min | 3.71% | C− |
| FLL to JFK · New York | 3,896 | 70.0% | 73 min | 4.77% | C− |
| FLL to PHL · Philadelphia | 3,589 | 72.0% | 97 min | 3.46% | C− |
| FLL to ORD · Chicago | 3,518 | 68.7% | 86 min | 1.76% | C |
| FLL to BOS · Boston | 3,293 | 66.8% | 77 min | 3.67% | C− |
| FLL to BWI · Baltimore | 3,150 | 71.0% | 65 min | 3.02% | C− |
| FLL to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,149 | 72.1% | 86 min | 2.83% | C |
| FLL to CLT · Charlotte | 3,060 | 77.2% | 83 min | 2.81% | B |
| FLL to IAH · Houston | 2,919 | 81.5% | 75 min | 1.30% | B |
| FLL to DTW · Detroit | 2,705 | 72.3% | 73 min | 2.14% | C |
| FLL to SJU · San Juan | 2,358 | 66.8% | 63 min | 1.57% | C |
| FLL to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,333 | 75.8% | 59 min | 1.16% | B |
| FLL to DCA · Washington | 2,320 | 67.8% | 73 min | 2.50% | C |
| FLL to BNA · Nashville | 2,193 | 68.0% | 60 min | 2.10% | C |
| FLL to DEN · Denver | 1,579 | 83.0% | 81 min | 0.19% | B+ |
| FLL to MCO · Orlando | 1,450 | 77.0% | 66 min | 1.38% | B |
| FLL to TPA · Tampa | 1,412 | 72.2% | 76 min | 2.20% | C |
| FLL to MSY · New Orleans | 1,403 | 62.8% | 62 min | 2.14% | D |
| FLL to RDU · Raleigh | 1,402 | 67.9% | 73 min | 2.21% | C |
| FLL to CLE · Cleveland | 1,306 | 77.2% | 78 min | 2.68% | B |
| FLL to SFO · San Francisco | 1,236 | 78.7% | 59 min | 0.16% | B+ |
| FLL to AUS · Austin | 1,229 | 61.7% | 63 min | 2.85% | D |
| FLL to MDW · Chicago | 1,120 | 71.7% | 53 min | 1.34% | C |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave FLL
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 32 points, against 22 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am15,570 flights89.8%
- 8am–11am13,529 flights83.0%
- 11am–2pm16,210 flights70.7%
- 2pm–5pm14,273 flights61.5%
- 5pm–8pm16,920 flights59.6%
- 8pm–5am14,331 flights58.0%
Scale runs 50% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 58.0% on time, against 89.8% 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 16,920 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter FLL 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 Fort Lauderdale (FLL), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.8% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 58.0%, a wide gap of 31.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.8%
- 8–11am83.0%
- 11am–2pm70.7%
- 2–5pm61.5%
- 5–8pm59.6%
- 8pm–5am58.0%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%.
Across the year
When FLL runs late
FLL's year swings by 23 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 82.8% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 9,928 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 79.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 61.2%, a spread of 18 points.
FLL month by month
Delay causes
Why FLL gets delayed
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 1.90 million reported delay minutes.
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 25%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
40% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 1.90 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 1,895,786 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 89.8% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.51%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
11.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
90,833 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 FLL
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 82.8% on time and March 59.7%, a swing of 23 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 88,248 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
FLL delay questions
How often is Fort Lauderdale (FLL) delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 29.6% of the 90,833 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Fort Lauderdale (FLL)?
United Airlines leads at 82.6% on time across 9,046 flights. Allegiant Air is at the other end on 60.9%, a gap of 22 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 Fort Lauderdale (FLL)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 58.0%, 32 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 March delays on Fort Lauderdale (FLL)?
March is the weakest month at 59.7% on time, compared with 82.8% in September. Across the year that is 23 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
- FLL to ATL — Atlanta71.0%
- FLL to LGA — New York64.8%
- FLL to EWR — Newark71.1%
- FLL to JFK — New York70.0%
- FLL to PHL — Philadelphia72.0%
- FLL to ORD — Chicago68.7%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record66.9%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record65.2%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record76.7%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record71.2%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
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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.