Airport month record

PHXDEC

Phoenix Sky Harbor International in December 2025

Departures: 17,689
Month: December 2025
National, same month: 73.2%
Carriers: 11

Historical statistics for December 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s December. For today’s conditions at PHX, see live FAA status.

PHX in December lands a B+, 5 points better than the national rate of 73.2%. 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 17,689 flights, of which United Airlines flew 973 at 85.9% on time.

United Airlines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 85.9% on time across 973 flights.

On time

78.4%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 17,559 completed departures

Avg delay

59 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.50%

Nationally in December: 1.55%

Whole year

78.8%

PHX across all twelve months

These figures cover 17,689 departures from Phoenix Sky Harbor 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 PHX's other months

Against PHX's own year, December ran level with the twelve-month rate of 78.8%, which makes it number seven of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for PHX in December, at 0.50% against 0.86% across the year. Either side of it, November ran 78.0% on time and January 81.6%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.

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 (this page)	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	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 December

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 22 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,560 flights93.8%
8am–11am3,823 flights85.3%
11am–2pm3,436 flights79.1%
2pm–5pm3,303 flights73.2%
5pm–8pm2,686 flights71.7%
8pm–5am2,881 flights72.3%

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 93.8% of the time, against 71.7% for the evening window. That is 22 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 3,823 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.4%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at PHX in December

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 85.9% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 73.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 5,992 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at PHX in December 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	5,992	73.3%	49 min	0.37%	C+
American Airlines	4,975	79.1%	70 min	0.14%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	2,487	82.0%	72 min	0.64%	B+
Envoy Air	981	85.8%	41 min	0.41%	A+
United Airlines	973	85.9%	68 min	0.51%	A+
Delta Air Lines	955	82.7%	71 min	2.20%	B
Frontier Airlines	600	81.7%	70 min	1.33%	B
Alaska Airlines	484	78.6%	40 min	0.41%	B+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	155	65.8%	58 min	1.94%	C
Allegiant Airthin sample	34	75.8%	84 min	0.00%	B+
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	31	83.9%	52 min	0.00%	B+

The spread between United and Southwest is 13 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 13 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of PHX in December

Routes from PHX in December 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
PHX to DEN · Denver	771	78.3%	57 min	0.78%	B+
PHX to LAX · Los Angeles	668	81.7%	49 min	0.45%	B+
PHX to SEA · Seattle	627	77.2%	47 min	0.48%	B+
PHX to SLC · Salt Lake City	515	83.9%	56 min	0.58%	B+
PHX to LAS · Las Vegas	496	76.8%	53 min	0.20%	B+
PHX to ORD · Chicago	490	79.8%	85 min	0.41%	B+
PHX to SAN · San Diego	463	68.0%	52 min	0.65%	C+
PHX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	426	82.9%	51 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to SFO · San Francisco	425	74.2%	88 min	0.47%	C+
PHX to SNA · Santa Ana	401	77.3%	49 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to SMF · Sacramentothin sample	349	84.2%	44 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to PDX · Portlandthin sample	343	71.1%	45 min	0.00%	C+
PHX to ATL · Atlantathin sample	332	81.8%	80 min	0.90%	B+
PHX to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample	321	80.7%	49 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to AUS · Austinthin sample	291	75.5%	48 min	0.34%	B+
PHX to ONT · Ontariothin sample	282	77.2%	60 min	0.35%	B+
PHX to TUS · Tucsonthin sample	278	87.4%	131 min	0.00%	A+
PHX to DAL · Dallasthin sample	278	79.8%	51 min	0.36%	B+
PHX to SJC · San Josethin sample	276	75.3%	54 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	270	75.6%	66 min	4.44%	B−
PHX to IAH · Houstonthin sample	269	87.6%	47 min	0.74%	A+
PHX to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	269	77.9%	65 min	0.74%	B+
PHX to BUR · Burbankthin sample	267	76.1%	48 min	1.12%	B
PHX to SAT · San Antoniothin sample	252	77.8%	62 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to MDW · Chicagothin sample	242	75.8%	48 min	0.41%	B+

Delay causes

What held PHX up in December

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 225,000 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
47%
Carrier
38%
National Airspace System
13%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

47% 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 225,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 22 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 224,731 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.50%, below the national 1.55% 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.

6.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 10.0%. 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 December

For a December trip through PHX: expect 78.4% on time and 0.50% cancelled, going by December 2025. 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 January81.6%
PHX in February83.4%
PHX in March76.8%
PHX in April80.8%
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