Airport month record
PBISEP
Palm Beach International in September 2025
- Departures
- 1,818
- Month
- September 2025
- National, same month
- 83.4%
- Carriers
- 6
Historical statistics for September 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s September. For today’s conditions at PBI, see live FAA status.
PBI in September lands a B+, about a point worse than the national rate of 83.4%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 1,818 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 509 at 84.3% on time.
Key figures
On time
82.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,807 completed departures
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.44%
Nationally in September: 0.51%
Whole year
75.1%
PBI across all twelve months
These figures cover 1,818 departures from Palm Beach 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 PBI's other months
Against PBI's own year, September ran 7 points better than the twelve-month rate of 75.1%, which makes it number two of eleven months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for PBI in September, at 0.44% against 2.64% across the year.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2025 (this page) | 1,818 | 82.2% | 74 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| October 2025 | 2,268 | 78.1% | 78 min | 0.88% | B+ |
| November 2025 | 2,792 | 76.8% | 89 min | 2.11% | B |
| December 2025 | 3,186 | 71.7% | 79 min | 1.95% | C |
| January 2026 | 3,108 | 74.7% | 79 min | 5.50% | C− |
| February 2026 | 2,973 | 73.8% | 78 min | 4.78% | C− |
| March 2026 | 3,385 | 69.1% | 79 min | 3.49% | C− |
| April 2026 | 3,067 | 71.3% | 75 min | 0.62% | C+ |
| May 2026 | 2,545 | 83.1% | 79 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| June 2026 | 2,154 | 79.1% | 90 min | 1.81% | B |
| July 2026 | 2,102 | 71.8% | 101 min | 5.33% | C− |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave PBI in September
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 27 points, against 4 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am322 flights94.4%
- 8am–11am237 flights94.5%
- 11am–2pm462 flights85.4%
- 2pm–5pm345 flights67.2%
- 5pm–8pm349 flights74.0%
- 8pm–5am103 flights79.4%
Scale runs 60% to 100%.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 94.5% of the time, against 67.2% for the afternoon window. That is 27 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 462 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 87.1% on time and Thursday the weakest at 78.1%, a spread of 9 points.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at PBI in September
The two carriers here are closely matched: 4 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 509 | 84.3% | 70 min | 0.20% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 453 | 80.4% | 72 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 351 | 78.4% | 80 min | 1.14% | B |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 236 | 88.1% | 69 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 183 | 82.3% | 92 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 44 | 84.1% | 47 min | 0.00% | B+ |
No carrier stands out. Delta tops the table at 84.3%, 4 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of PBI in September
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PBI to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 282 | 86.2% | 44 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PBI to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 203 | 83.5% | 92 min | 0.49% | B+ |
| PBI to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 164 | 86.5% | 61 min | 0.61% | A+ |
| PBI to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 148 | 85.7% | 68 min | 0.68% | A+ |
| PBI to HPN · White Plainsthin sample | 113 | 87.4% | 53 min | 0.88% | A+ |
| PBI to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 100 | 87.0% | 54 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PBI to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 96 | 64.2% | 87 min | 1.04% | D |
| PBI to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 92 | 44.6% | 95 min | 0.00% | F+ |
| PBI to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 90 | 91.1% | 140 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PBI to ISP · Islipthin sample | 86 | 88.4% | 41 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PBI to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 86 | 87.2% | 48 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PBI to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 68 | 66.2% | 94 min | 4.41% | C− |
| PBI to MCO · Orlandothin sample | 60 | 91.7% | 48 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PBI to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 48 | 75.0% | 83 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PBI to ACY · Atlantic Citythin sample | 44 | 84.1% | 47 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PBI to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 30 | 76.7% | 40 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PBI to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 30 | 93.3% | 26 min | 0.00% | A+ |
Delay causes
What held PBI 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 24,000 reported delay minutes.
- 35%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%National Airspace System
- 27%Carrier
- 7%Extreme weather
35% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 24,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 23,775 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.44%, 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.
7.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 5.4%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
What to do with this
Flying from PBI in September
For a September trip through PBI: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 82.2% on time with 0.44% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- Palm Beach International (PBI), the whole year
- PBI in October78.1%
- PBI in November76.8%
- PBI in December71.7%
- PBI in January74.7%
- PBI in February73.8%
- PBI in March69.1%
- PBI in April71.3%
- PBI in May83.1%
- PBI in June79.1%
- PBI in July71.8%
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.