Airport month record
PHLDEC
Philadelphia International in December 2025
- Departures
- 7,468
- Month
- December 2025
- National, same month
- 73.2%
- Carriers
- 10
Historical statistics for December 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s December. For today’s conditions at PHL, see live FAA status.
PHL in December draws a C. About one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, and the typical late arrival is a little over an hour behind schedule. Build slack into anything you connect to. That rests on 7,468 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 534 at 75.2% on time.
Republic Airways is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 75.2% on time across 534 flights.
Key figures
On time
65.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 7,276 completed departures
Avg delay
80 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.36%
Nationally in December: 1.55%
Whole year
75.7%
PHL across all twelve months
These figures cover 7,468 departures from Philadelphia International in December 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
December next to PHL's other months
Against PHL's own year, December ran 10 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 75.7%, which makes it number eleven of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, November ran 77.8% on time and January 75.5%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 9,013 | 65.1% | 103 min | 5.25% | C− |
| August 2025 | 9,120 | 72.2% | 79 min | 1.30% | C |
| September 2025 | 8,225 | 82.0% | 67 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| October 2025 | 9,306 | 77.5% | 72 min | 0.44% | B+ |
| November 2025 | 7,499 | 77.8% | 80 min | 2.00% | B |
| December 2025 (this page) | 7,468 | 65.3% | 80 min | 2.36% | C |
| January 2026 | 7,049 | 75.5% | 84 min | 7.86% | B− |
| February 2026 | 6,686 | 80.0% | 70 min | 6.09% | B− |
| March 2026 | 7,778 | 76.7% | 86 min | 3.15% | B− |
| April 2026 | 8,692 | 80.8% | 73 min | 0.68% | B+ |
| May 2026 | 9,251 | 80.7% | 74 min | 1.09% | B |
| June 2026 | 9,707 | 74.4% | 85 min | 2.73% | C |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave PHL in December
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 7,468 flights.
- 5am–8am1,088 flights66.8%
- 8am–11am1,780 flights69.2%
- 11am–2pm987 flights66.8%
- 2pm–5pm1,296 flights65.4%
- 5pm–8pm1,698 flights60.7%
- 8pm–5am619 flights60.5%
Scale runs 50% to 75%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 60.5% on time, against 69.2% for the 8am–11am 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 1,780 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 42.8%. 37 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at PHL in December
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 75.2% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 57.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 480 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 3,115 | 68.6% | 76 min | 1.51% | C |
| PSA Airlines | 1,365 | 58.1% | 87 min | 4.91% | D− |
| Frontier Airlines | 736 | 58.1% | 95 min | 3.67% | D− |
| Republic Airways | 534 | 75.2% | 91 min | 1.69% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 506 | 69.9% | 69 min | 3.36% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines | 480 | 57.7% | 58 min | 0.00% | D+ |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 343 | 68.4% | 71 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 181 | 73.0% | 82 min | 3.31% | C− |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 124 | 62.0% | 60 min | 2.42% | D |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 62 | 37.1% | 45 min | 0.00% | F+ |
PSA Airlines cancels 4.9% 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 PHL in December
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHL to ATL · Atlanta | 458 | 69.7% | 65 min | 4.37% | C− |
| PHL to MCO · Orlando | 449 | 62.6% | 88 min | 1.78% | D |
| PHL to BOS · Boston | 365 | 75.8% | 76 min | 1.64% | B |
| PHL to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 343 | 65.0% | 75 min | 1.75% | C |
| PHL to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample | 325 | 67.9% | 102 min | 1.23% | C |
| PHL to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 300 | 69.5% | 71 min | 1.67% | C |
| PHL to MIA · Miamithin sample | 277 | 76.4% | 100 min | 1.81% | B |
| PHL to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 270 | 65.4% | 100 min | 3.33% | C− |
| PHL to DEN · Denverthin sample | 236 | 55.6% | 57 min | 1.69% | D |
| PHL to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 232 | 65.6% | 120 min | 3.45% | C− |
| PHL to TPA · Tampathin sample | 211 | 61.2% | 98 min | 0.95% | D+ |
| PHL to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 204 | 63.7% | 87 min | 0.98% | D+ |
| PHL to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 203 | 70.1% | 50 min | 0.49% | C+ |
| PHL to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 197 | 60.6% | 70 min | 2.03% | D |
| PHL to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 175 | 66.5% | 46 min | 0.57% | C+ |
| PHL to SJU · San Juanthin sample | 163 | 54.4% | 76 min | 2.45% | F |
| PHL to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 159 | 64.6% | 96 min | 0.63% | D+ |
| PHL to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 157 | 78.6% | 71 min | 1.27% | B |
| PHL to PBI · West Palm Beachthin sample | 154 | 71.1% | 68 min | 1.30% | C |
| PHL to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 150 | 64.2% | 72 min | 0.67% | D+ |
| PHL to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 149 | 63.6% | 86 min | 6.04% | D− |
| PHL to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample | 133 | 64.9% | 77 min | 1.50% | D |
| PHL to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 122 | 59.0% | 61 min | 0.00% | D+ |
| PHL to JAX · Jacksonvillethin sample | 119 | 66.4% | 67 min | 2.52% | C |
| PHL to CVG · Cincinnatithin sample | 99 | 55.8% | 76 min | 4.04% | D− |
Delay causes
What held PHL up in December
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 201,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 23%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% 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 201,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 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 200,897 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.36% against a national 1.55%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.21%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 13.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 10.0% 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.
What to do with this
Flying from PHL in December
For a December trip through PHL: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 8am–11am departures held up best at 69.2% on time, and with 13.9% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in September would.
Related
Where to go next
- Philadelphia International (PHL), the whole year
- PHL in July65.1%
- PHL in August72.2%
- PHL in September82.0%
- PHL in October77.5%
- PHL in November77.8%
- PHL in January75.5%
- PHL in February80.0%
- PHL in March76.7%
- PHL in April80.8%
- PHL in May80.7%
- PHL in June74.4%
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.