Phoenix, AZ · departure reliability

PHX

Phoenix Sky Harbor International

Departures: 197,182
Period: June 2025 to May 2026
Carriers: 9
US rank: #5 by volume

Terminal building and aircraft stands at a US airport

Phoenix

Phoenix Sky Harbor International lands a B+, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 197,182 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 10,708 at 86.6% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the nine carriers covered here at 86.6% on time across 10,708 flights.

On time

79.1%

Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination

Avg delay

63 min

Across delayed flights only

Cancelled

0.87%

National rate is 1.80%

Best carrier

Delta

86.6% on time here

These figures cover 197,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 5 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines run best out of PHX

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.6% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 70.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,139 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier departing PHX
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	67,877	75.1%	49 min	0.65%	B+
American Airlines	56,179	79.4%	70 min	1.13%	B
SkyWest Airlines	27,166	81.3%	78 min	0.80%	B+
Delta Air Lines	10,708	86.6%	84 min	1.06%	A
United Airlines	10,185	81.5%	77 min	0.79%	B+
Envoy Air	9,964	85.3%	49 min	0.70%	A+
Frontier Airlines	7,555	79.0%	84 min	1.28%	B
Alaska Airlines	5,615	85.1%	56 min	0.68%	A+
JetBlue Airways	1,139	70.6%	68 min	2.37%	C

The spread between Delta and JetBlue is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of PHX

Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from PHX, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 79.1%.

Busiest routes from PHX by flight volume
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
PHX to DEN · Denver	8,893	76.9%	67 min	0.83%	B+
PHX to LAX · Los Angeles	7,608	83.3%	60 min	0.60%	B+
PHX to SEA · Seattle	7,317	82.6%	54 min	0.63%	B+
PHX to LAS · Las Vegas	6,055	78.9%	63 min	0.99%	B+
PHX to SAN · San Diego	5,868	74.1%	57 min	1.31%	C
PHX to SLC · Salt Lake City	5,749	83.2%	61 min	0.63%	B+
PHX to ORD · Chicago	5,633	76.8%	76 min	1.56%	B
PHX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	5,139	79.9%	78 min	2.45%	B
PHX to SFO · San Francisco	4,625	70.7%	64 min	0.61%	C+
PHX to SNA · Santa Ana	4,578	79.9%	52 min	0.46%	B+
PHX to ATL · Atlanta	3,790	82.4%	74 min	0.82%	B+
PHX to PDX · Portland	3,744	78.9%	56 min	0.37%	B+
PHX to SMF · Sacramento	3,717	80.5%	54 min	0.40%	B+
PHX to AUS · Austin	3,389	75.7%	55 min	0.71%	B+
PHX to TUS · Tucson	3,332	82.8%	76 min	0.60%	B+
PHX to ABQ · Albuquerque	3,331	80.2%	60 min	0.42%	B+
PHX to MSP · Minneapolis	3,142	83.5%	74 min	0.86%	B+
PHX to BUR · Burbank	3,118	80.5%	62 min	0.83%	B+
PHX to ONT · Ontario	3,095	77.8%	57 min	0.45%	B+
PHX to SJC · San Jose	3,038	79.7%	56 min	0.49%	B+
PHX to JFK · New York	2,917	79.4%	74 min	2.74%	B
PHX to IAH · Houston	2,911	81.0%	76 min	1.06%	B
PHX to DAL · Dallas	2,892	77.2%	52 min	1.94%	B
PHX to CLT · Charlotte	2,888	87.2%	75 min	1.21%	A
PHX to MDW · Chicago	2,815	74.0%	49 min	1.14%	C

Departure window

The best time of day to leave PHX

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am22,863 flights92.2%
8am–11am46,370 flights84.2%
11am–2pm33,466 flights79.4%
2pm–5pm36,379 flights74.2%
5pm–8pm29,631 flights71.2%
8pm–5am28,473 flights74.1%

Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.2% of the time, against 71.2% for the evening window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.

Across the year

When PHX runs late

Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 197,182 flights. The strip shows how much of PHX's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.February best, July worst

July is the worst month at 75.5% on time, 8 points below February, the best at 83.4%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.5%. 7 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why PHX gets delayed

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 2.57 million 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
44%
Carrier
38%
National Airspace System
15%
Extreme weather
3%
Security
0%

44% 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 2.57 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 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 largest share of delay minutes, 38%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 978,000 of the 2.57 million delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations are rare at 0.87%, below the national 1.80% 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.

6.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the about an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.

197,182 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 PHX

Put together: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 71.2% on time against 92.2% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 21 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close.

Common questions

PHX delay questions

How often is Phoenix (PHX) delayed?

About one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 20.9% of the 197,182 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.

Which airline is most reliable on Phoenix (PHX)?

Delta Air Lines leads at 86.6% on time across 10,708 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 70.6%, a gap of 16 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 Phoenix (PHX)?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 71.2%, 21 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 July delays on Phoenix (PHX)?

July is the weakest month at 75.5% on time, compared with 83.4% in February. Across the year that is 8 points between the best and worst months. The seasonal swing is modest enough that it should not decide when you travel.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures