Airport month record
PHXSEP
Phoenix Sky Harbor International in September 2025
- Departures
- 13,772
- Month
- September 2025
- National, same month
- 83.4%
- Carriers
- 11
Historical statistics for September 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s September. For today’s conditions at PHX, see live FAA status.
PHX in September lands a B, level with the national rate of 83.4%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 13,772 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 826 at 89.2% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 89.2% on time across 826 flights.
Key figures
On time
83.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 13,595 completed departures
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.09%
Nationally in September: 0.51%
Whole year
78.8%
PHX across all twelve months
These figures cover 13,772 departures from Phoenix Sky Harbor International in September 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
September next to PHX's other months
Against PHX's own year, September ran 4 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.8%, which makes it number two of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, August ran 81.0% on time and October 78.8%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.
| 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 (this page) | 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 | 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 September
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 18 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,688 flights93.2%
- 8am–11am3,870 flights87.7%
- 11am–2pm2,341 flights82.2%
- 2pm–5pm2,605 flights78.6%
- 5pm–8pm2,056 flights75.7%
- 8pm–5am1,212 flights76.9%
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 75.7% for the evening window. That is 18 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 3,870 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 90.5% on time and Friday the weakest at 74.5%. 16 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at PHX in September
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 89.2% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 80.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 536 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 4,986 | 81.2% | 59 min | 1.00% | B |
| American Airlines | 3,777 | 82.9% | 72 min | 1.69% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,738 | 84.1% | 83 min | 1.15% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 826 | 89.2% | 153 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| United Airlines | 731 | 82.9% | 109 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| Envoy Air | 670 | 88.4% | 52 min | 0.90% | A+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 536 | 80.9% | 93 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 398 | 86.1% | 71 min | 0.25% | A+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 33 | 78.8% | 245 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 30 | 76.7% | 69 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample | 30 | 86.7% | 44 min | 0.00% | A+ |
Delta leads Frontier by 8 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of PHX in September
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PHX to DEN · Denver | 662 | 78.0% | 77 min | 0.60% | B+ |
| PHX to LAX · Los Angeles | 583 | 85.5% | 59 min | 0.86% | A+ |
| PHX to SEA · Seattle | 544 | 84.6% | 79 min | 0.55% | B+ |
| PHX to SAN · San Diego | 499 | 78.5% | 83 min | 1.80% | B |
| PHX to ORD · Chicago | 436 | 79.3% | 79 min | 1.15% | B |
| PHX to LAS · Las Vegas | 430 | 82.7% | 56 min | 1.86% | B |
| PHX to SLC · Salt Lake City | 413 | 86.6% | 92 min | 0.48% | A+ |
| PHX to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 398 | 83.5% | 66 min | 3.77% | B− |
| PHX to SNA · Santa Anathin sample | 351 | 79.0% | 44 min | 0.85% | B+ |
| PHX to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 342 | 76.9% | 65 min | 1.17% | B |
| PHX to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 292 | 85.3% | 106 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PHX to PDX · Portlandthin sample | 256 | 79.8% | 70 min | 1.17% | B |
| PHX to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 241 | 85.2% | 57 min | 1.66% | A |
| PHX to BUR · Burbankthin sample | 236 | 82.6% | 56 min | 1.69% | B |
| PHX to ABQ · Albuquerquethin sample | 236 | 85.8% | 50 min | 1.27% | A |
| PHX to AUS · Austinthin sample | 236 | 86.8% | 82 min | 0.42% | A+ |
| PHX to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 229 | 86.7% | 108 min | 0.87% | A+ |
| PHX to ONT · Ontariothin sample | 227 | 77.2% | 65 min | 1.32% | B |
| PHX to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 218 | 90.8% | 110 min | 0.46% | A+ |
| PHX to TUS · Tucsonthin sample | 217 | 83.1% | 58 min | 1.84% | B |
| PHX to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 204 | 84.2% | 53 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| PHX to DAL · Dallasthin sample | 204 | 86.0% | 57 min | 0.98% | A+ |
| PHX to SJC · San Josethin sample | 201 | 89.9% | 74 min | 1.49% | A |
| PHX to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 197 | 85.6% | 103 min | 0.51% | A+ |
| PHX to ELP · El Pasothin sample | 193 | 81.6% | 61 min | 1.55% | B |
Delay causes
What held PHX up in September
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 172,000 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.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 9%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% 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 172,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 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 171,649 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.09% against a national 0.51%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.20%.
5.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 5.4%. 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
What to do with this
Flying from PHX in September
For a September trip through PHX: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 83.0% on time with 1.09% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX), the whole year
- PHX in July75.5%
- PHX in August81.0%
- 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 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.