West Palm Beach, FL · departure reliability
PBI
Palm Beach International
- Departures
- 29,398
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 8
- US rank
- #53 by volume
West Palm Beach
Palm Beach International sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 29,398 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 2,601 at 78.8% on time.
Southwest Airlines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 78.8% on time across 2,601 flights.
Key figures
On time
75.1%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
81 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.64%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Southwest
78.8% on time here
These figures cover 29,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of PBI
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Southwest Airlines arrives on time 78.8% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 53.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 436 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airways | 8,463 | 71.4% | 77 min | 3.54% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 6,601 | 77.2% | 74 min | 2.64% | B |
| American Airlines | 6,019 | 76.7% | 99 min | 2.29% | B |
| United Airlines | 4,216 | 77.3% | 90 min | 1.83% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 2,601 | 78.8% | 55 min | 1.08% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 436 | 53.8% | 98 min | 3.44% | F− |
| Allegiant Air | 424 | 72.4% | 81 min | 0.71% | C+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 396 | 71.2% | 72 min | 7.83% | C− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 7.8% 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 PBI
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 18 busiest departures from PBI, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 75.1%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PBI to ATL · Atlanta | 3,475 | 82.7% | 67 min | 1.61% | B |
| PBI to EWR · Newark | 3,394 | 75.8% | 87 min | 3.09% | B− |
| PBI to LGA · New York | 3,008 | 68.1% | 80 min | 4.49% | C− |
| PBI to JFK · New York | 2,051 | 74.3% | 91 min | 4.29% | C− |
| PBI to BOS · Boston | 2,038 | 65.6% | 80 min | 3.73% | C− |
| PBI to CLT · Charlotte | 1,694 | 84.3% | 100 min | 1.53% | B |
| PBI to DCA · Washington | 1,690 | 69.6% | 90 min | 2.07% | C |
| PBI to HPN · White Plains | 1,574 | 72.7% | 69 min | 3.43% | C− |
| PBI to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,450 | 78.0% | 113 min | 2.34% | B |
| PBI to ORD · Chicago | 1,276 | 68.9% | 98 min | 1.80% | C |
| PBI to BWI · Baltimore | 1,141 | 81.2% | 59 min | 1.49% | B |
| PBI to ISP · Islip | 1,134 | 73.9% | 60 min | 1.76% | C |
| PBI to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,068 | 73.0% | 82 min | 2.90% | C |
| PBI to MCO · Orlando | 554 | 86.2% | 62 min | 0.72% | A+ |
| PBI to IAH · Houston | 491 | 81.6% | 89 min | 1.22% | B |
| PBI to BDL · Hartford | 487 | 75.5% | 74 min | 2.87% | B |
| PBI to DTW · Detroit | 444 | 75.5% | 78 min | 1.35% | B |
| PBI to PVD · Providence | 396 | 76.0% | 79 min | 3.03% | B− |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave PBI
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 30 points, against 25 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am4,714 flights93.7%
- 8am–11am4,512 flights85.8%
- 11am–2pm6,545 flights76.0%
- 2pm–5pm5,348 flights65.0%
- 5pm–8pm6,120 flights64.3%
- 8pm–5am2,159 flights63.7%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 63.7% on time, against 93.7% 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 6,545 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PBI 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 West Palm Beach (PBI), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.7% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 63.7%, a wide gap of 30.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.7%
- 8–11am85.8%
- 11am–2pm76.0%
- 2–5pm65.0%
- 5–8pm64.3%
- 8pm–5am63.7%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 100%.
Across the year
When PBI runs late
PBI's year swings by 14 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.
May is the best month on the calendar at 83.1% 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 3,385 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.5%, a spread of 13 points.
PBI month by month
Delay causes
Why PBI gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 578,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 24%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. Across 578,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 to one. The split is drawn from 577,957 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 93.7% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.64%, 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.
10.5% 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.
29,398 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 PBI
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. May runs 83.1% on time and March 69.1%, a swing of 14 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 28,523 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PBI delay questions
How often is West Palm Beach (PBI) 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 24.9% of the 29,398 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 West Palm Beach (PBI)?
Southwest Airlines leads at 78.8% on time across 2,601 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 53.8%, a gap of 25 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 West Palm Beach (PBI)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.7% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 63.7%, 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 West Palm Beach (PBI)?
March is the weakest month at 69.1% on time, compared with 83.1% in May. Across the year that is 14 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
- PBI to ATL — Atlanta82.7%
- PBI to EWR — Newark75.8%
- PBI to LGA — New York68.1%
- PBI to JFK — New York74.3%
- PBI to BOS — Boston65.6%
- PBI to CLT — Charlotte84.3%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record71.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record77.2%
- American Airlines on-time record76.7%
- United Airlines on-time record77.3%
- 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.