Airport month record

PHXMAR

Phoenix Sky Harbor International in March 2026

Departures: 19,277
Month: March 2026
National, same month: 75.7%
Carriers: 10

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

PHX in March lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 75.7%. About one flight in four 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 19,277 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 606 at 87.4% on time.

Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 87.4% on time across 606 flights.

On time

76.8%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 19,031 completed departures

Avg delay

65 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.92%

Nationally in March: 2.90%

Whole year

78.8%

PHX across all twelve months

These figures cover 19,277 departures from Phoenix Sky Harbor International in March 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

March next to PHX's other months

Against PHX's own year, March ran 2 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 78.8%, which makes it number ten of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, February ran 83.4% on time and April 80.8%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better 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 (this page)	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 March

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 17 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am2,336 flights89.8%
8am–11am4,261 flights78.3%
11am–2pm3,106 flights74.6%
2pm–5pm3,401 flights74.3%
5pm–8pm2,958 flights72.5%
8pm–5am3,215 flights74.2%

Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.8% of the time, against 72.5% for the evening window. That is 17 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 4,261 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 79.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.9%. 6 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at PHX in March

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 87.4% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 71.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 6,343 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at PHX in March 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	6,343	71.8%	49 min	0.79%	C+
American Airlines	5,301	78.3%	67 min	0.94%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	3,058	78.9%	92 min	0.59%	B+
United Airlines	991	80.8%	88 min	0.71%	B+
Delta Air Lines	966	84.8%	89 min	2.90%	B
Frontier Airlines	952	72.8%	85 min	1.37%	C
Envoy Air	876	85.1%	43 min	0.34%	A+
Alaska Airlines	606	87.4%	62 min	1.32%	A
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	154	50.0%	57 min	0.00%	F+
Allegiant Airthin sample	30	76.7%	86 min	0.00%	B+

The spread between Alaska and Southwest 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 in March

Routes from PHX in March 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
PHX to DEN · Denver	922	74.6%	70 min	0.54%	C+
PHX to SEA · Seattle	685	80.1%	58 min	2.04%	B
PHX to LAX · Los Angeles	680	83.7%	64 min	0.59%	B+
PHX to ORD · Chicago	586	72.8%	100 min	2.56%	C
PHX to SLC · Salt Lake City	581	85.5%	65 min	0.52%	A+
PHX to LAS · Las Vegas	538	77.8%	66 min	0.37%	B+
PHX to SAN · San Diego	505	76.0%	61 min	0.20%	B+
PHX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	487	78.7%	58 min	1.44%	B
PHX to SFO · San Francisco	454	83.2%	61 min	0.22%	B+
PHX to SNA · Santa Ana	429	82.6%	43 min	0.70%	B+
PHX to PDX · Portland	411	81.1%	53 min	0.73%	B+
PHX to TUS · Tucsonthin sample	360	81.9%	115 min	0.28%	B+
PHX to SMF · Sacramentothin sample	355	79.9%	60 min	0.56%	B+
PHX to ATL · Atlantathin sample	351	77.4%	76 min	1.71%	B
PHX to AUS · Austinthin sample	348	71.2%	51 min	0.29%	C+
PHX to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	337	83.2%	86 min	4.15%	B−
PHX to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample	305	82.2%	49 min	0.33%	B+
PHX to IAH · Houstonthin sample	301	74.1%	93 min	1.99%	C
PHX to SJC · San Josethin sample	299	87.6%	79 min	0.00%	A+
PHX to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	289	72.0%	66 min	2.08%	C
PHX to BUR · Burbankthin sample	288	80.1%	69 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to ONT · Ontariothin sample	288	79.5%	54 min	0.00%	B+
PHX to MDW · Chicagothin sample	283	61.1%	59 min	3.18%	D−
PHX to CLT · Charlottethin sample	279	90.3%	59 min	0.72%	A+
PHX to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample	272	70.9%	60 min	0.74%	C+

Delay causes

What held PHX up in March

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 288,000 reported delay minutes.

Carrier
41%
Late-arriving aircraft
40%
National Airspace System
17%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

40% 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 288,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 20 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 287,518 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 0.92% against a national 2.90%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.36%.

7.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 9.5%. 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 March

For a March trip through PHX: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 89.8% on time, and with 7.4% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in February would.

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 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