Fort Lauderdale, FL · departure reliability
FLL
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International
- Departures
- 90,645
- Period
- June 2025 to May 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, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.4%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 90,645 flights, of which United Airlines flew 8,844 at 82.1% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the nine carriers covered here at 82.1% on time across 8,844 flights.
Key figures
On time
71.4%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
73 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.21%
National rate is 1.80%
Best carrier
United
82.1% on time here
These figures cover 91,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of FLL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 82.1% of the time; Allegiant Air manages 62.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 4,573 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airways | 21,594 | 68.2% | 67 min | 2.15% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 20,066 | 68.3% | 70 min | 3.49% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 12,883 | 76.2% | 79 min | 2.17% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 11,693 | 72.7% | 55 min | 1.11% | C |
| United Airlines | 8,844 | 82.1% | 82 min | 1.12% | B |
| American Airlines | 7,467 | 74.5% | 99 min | 2.56% | C |
| Allegiant Air | 4,573 | 62.5% | 77 min | 0.87% | D+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,881 | 62.7% | 93 min | 3.05% | D− |
| Alaska Airlines | 644 | 69.2% | 55 min | 1.24% | C |
Spirit Airlines cancels 3.5% 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 71.4%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FLL to ATL · Atlanta | 7,168 | 70.9% | 72 min | 2.27% | C |
| FLL to EWR · Newark | 4,759 | 70.1% | 78 min | 3.32% | C− |
| FLL to LGA · New York | 4,608 | 65.8% | 74 min | 4.30% | C− |
| FLL to JFK · New York | 3,886 | 68.8% | 76 min | 3.78% | C− |
| FLL to BOS · Boston | 3,462 | 66.4% | 77 min | 3.24% | C− |
| FLL to ORD · Chicago | 3,414 | 69.1% | 87 min | 1.73% | C |
| FLL to PHL · Philadelphia | 3,291 | 72.8% | 95 min | 3.01% | C− |
| FLL to BWI · Baltimore | 3,156 | 72.6% | 62 min | 2.69% | C |
| FLL to CLT · Charlotte | 3,076 | 77.9% | 86 min | 2.57% | B |
| FLL to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,955 | 72.4% | 85 min | 3.15% | C− |
| FLL to IAH · Houston | 2,836 | 81.7% | 78 min | 1.09% | B |
| FLL to DTW · Detroit | 2,813 | 72.9% | 79 min | 1.78% | C |
| FLL to SJU · San Juan | 2,345 | 68.1% | 61 min | 1.28% | C |
| FLL to DCA · Washington | 2,301 | 66.8% | 77 min | 1.74% | C |
| FLL to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,257 | 77.0% | 66 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| FLL to BNA · Nashville | 2,169 | 73.0% | 59 min | 1.66% | C |
| FLL to DEN · Denver | 1,656 | 82.4% | 82 min | 0.30% | B+ |
| FLL to MCO · Orlando | 1,442 | 78.6% | 67 min | 1.11% | B |
| FLL to TPA · Tampa | 1,439 | 74.1% | 68 min | 1.67% | C |
| FLL to MSY · New Orleans | 1,386 | 67.6% | 61 min | 1.95% | C |
| FLL to RDU · Raleigh | 1,298 | 67.8% | 73 min | 1.85% | C |
| FLL to SFO · San Francisco | 1,265 | 80.1% | 59 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| FLL to MDW · Chicago | 1,133 | 71.3% | 55 min | 1.41% | C |
| FLL to CLE · Cleveland | 1,114 | 78.6% | 75 min | 1.89% | B |
| FLL to PIT · Pittsburgh | 1,107 | 67.0% | 68 min | 2.44% | 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 30 points, against 20 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am16,732 flights89.8%
- 8am–11am13,048 flights83.7%
- 11am–2pm15,514 flights71.1%
- 2pm–5pm14,030 flights62.6%
- 5pm–8pm16,780 flights60.3%
- 8pm–5am14,541 flights60.3%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 60.3% 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.
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.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 79.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 61.5%. 18 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
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 1.83 million reported delay minutes.
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 26%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
39% 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 1.83 million 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 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 sit at 2.21% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.31%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
90,645 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.
Common questions
FLL delay questions
How often is Fort Lauderdale (FLL) delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 28.6% of the 90,645 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% 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 82.1% on time across 8,844 flights. Allegiant Air is at the other end on 62.5%, a gap of 20 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 60.3%, 30 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 — Atlanta70.9%
- FLL to EWR — Newark70.1%
- FLL to LGA — New York65.8%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record68.2%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record68.3%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record76.2%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record72.7%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.