Airport month record

PHXAPR

Phoenix Sky Harbor International in April 2026

Departures: 17,679
Month: April 2026
National, same month: 79.8%
Carriers: 9

Historical statistics for April 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s April. For today’s conditions at PHX, see live FAA status.

PHX in April lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 79.8%. About one flight in five arrives 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 17,679 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 555 at 92.4% on time.

Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 92.4% on time across 555 flights.

On time

80.8%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 17,594 completed departures

Avg delay

57 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.29%

Nationally in April: 0.90%

Whole year

78.8%

PHX across all twelve months

These figures cover 17,679 departures from Phoenix Sky Harbor International in April 2026. 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

April next to PHX's other months

Against PHX's own year, April ran 2 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.8%, which makes it number five of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for PHX in April, at 0.29% against 0.86% across the year. Either side of it, March ran 76.8% on time and May 77.0%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

PHX month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	15,729	75.5%	70 min	0.97%	B+
August 2025	14,380	81.0%	66 min	0.39%	B+
September 2025	13,772	83.0%	74 min	1.09%	B
October 2025	16,620	78.8%	59 min	0.21%	B+
November 2025	16,887	78.0%	63 min	2.21%	B
December 2025	17,689	78.4%	59 min	0.50%	B+
January 2026	16,564	81.6%	64 min	2.34%	B
February 2026	15,656	83.4%	58 min	0.71%	B+
March 2026	19,277	76.8%	65 min	0.92%	B+
April 2026 (this page)	17,679	80.8%	57 min	0.29%	B+
May 2026	17,337	77.0%	58 min	0.30%	B+
June 2026	15,685	72.4%	65 min	0.43%	C+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave PHX in April

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am2,254 flights93.2%
8am–11am4,194 flights83.8%
11am–2pm2,807 flights78.6%
2pm–5pm3,160 flights77.5%
5pm–8pm2,630 flights74.2%
8pm–5am2,634 flights78.1%

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 93.2% of the time, against 74.2% for the evening window. That is 19 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 4,194 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.1%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at PHX in April

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 92.4% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 73.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 5,996 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at PHX in April 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	5,996	73.2%	44 min	0.23%	C+
American Airlines	4,747	83.9%	61 min	0.32%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	2,929	83.2%	79 min	0.24%	B+
Delta Air Lines	952	89.3%	64 min	0.11%	A+
United Airlines	874	80.5%	62 min	0.11%	B+
Envoy Air	822	90.7%	47 min	0.00%	A+
Frontier Airlines	664	82.2%	91 min	1.81%	B
Alaska Airlines	555	92.4%	64 min	0.18%	A+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	115	79.1%	55 min	0.00%	B+

The spread between Alaska and Southwest is 19 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 19 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of PHX in April

Routes from PHX in April 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
PHX to DEN · Denver	826	85.7%	58 min	0.00%	A+
PHX to SEA · Seattle	667	87.7%	46 min	0.15%	A+
PHX to LAX · Los Angeles	640	84.5%	64 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to ORD · Chicago	537	74.9%	84 min	2.23%	C
PHX to LAS · Las Vegas	530	79.1%	55 min	0.57%	B+
PHX to SLC · Salt Lake City	522	79.7%	55 min	0.77%	B+
PHX to SAN · San Diego	519	74.2%	47 min	0.58%	C+
PHX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	475	86.5%	63 min	1.47%	A
PHX to SFO · San Francisco	432	54.1%	56 min	0.23%	F+
PHX to SNA · Santa Ana	377	80.9%	59 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to ATL · Atlantathin sample	357	86.3%	45 min	0.00%	A+
PHX to TUS · Tucsonthin sample	352	82.1%	55 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to SMF · Sacramentothin sample	339	80.7%	42 min	0.29%	B+
PHX to PDX · Portlandthin sample	338	79.3%	48 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to AUS · Austinthin sample	316	79.0%	44 min	0.32%	B+
PHX to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample	280	76.3%	60 min	0.36%	B+
PHX to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	279	89.6%	87 min	0.00%	A+
PHX to BUR · Burbankthin sample	276	84.8%	49 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to SJC · San Josethin sample	272	75.9%	35 min	0.74%	B+
PHX to CLT · Charlottethin sample	266	91.4%	65 min	0.00%	A+
PHX to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	259	89.2%	65 min	0.00%	A+
PHX to ONT · Ontariothin sample	252	76.2%	46 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to MDW · Chicagothin sample	251	73.1%	51 min	0.80%	C+
PHX to DAL · Dallasthin sample	251	79.3%	42 min	1.99%	B
PHX to IAH · Houstonthin sample	249	83.3%	63 min	0.80%	B+

Delay causes

What held PHX up in April

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 191,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
46%
Carrier
39%
National Airspace System
14%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

46% 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 191,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 34 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 190,647 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.29%, below the national 0.90% 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.

5.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.4%. 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 last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from PHX in April

For a April trip through PHX: expect 80.8% on time and 0.29% cancelled, going by April 2026. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX), the whole year
PHX in July75.5%
PHX in August81.0%
PHX in September83.0%
PHX in October78.8%
PHX in November78.0%
PHX in December78.4%
PHX in January81.6%
PHX in February83.4%
PHX in March76.8%
PHX in May77.0%
PHX in June72.4%

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.

Key figures