Pittsburgh, PA · departure reliability
PIT
Pittsburgh International
- Departures
- 42,768
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 12
- US rank
- #44 by volume
Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh International lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 42,768 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,305 at 87.1% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the twelve carriers covered here at 87.1% on time across 3,305 flights.
Key figures
On time
80.7%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.16%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
87.1% on time here
These figures cover 43,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 9 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 PIT
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.1% of the time; Envoy Air manages 65.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 386 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 11,641 | 83.2% | 71 min | 3.54% | B− |
| Southwest Airlines | 10,398 | 79.4% | 57 min | 0.69% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 5,853 | 79.8% | 106 min | 1.49% | B |
| United Airlines | 4,173 | 82.1% | 86 min | 1.03% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 3,305 | 87.1% | 69 min | 1.82% | A |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,761 | 78.5% | 82 min | 4.94% | B− |
| Allegiant Air | 1,607 | 78.6% | 98 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,126 | 74.9% | 115 min | 1.78% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 935 | 79.0% | 69 min | 4.71% | B− |
| PSA Airlines | 850 | 67.9% | 94 min | 7.41% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 474 | 74.0% | 50 min | 1.05% | C |
| Envoy Air | 386 | 65.9% | 63 min | 2.85% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 7.4% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of PIT
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from PIT, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 80.7%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PIT to ORD · Chicago | 4,031 | 77.1% | 97 min | 2.23% | B |
| PIT to LGA · New York | 3,012 | 79.9% | 82 min | 5.74% | B− |
| PIT to ATL · Atlanta | 2,737 | 89.2% | 69 min | 1.90% | A |
| PIT to MCO · Orlando | 2,237 | 79.1% | 62 min | 1.30% | B |
| PIT to BOS · Boston | 2,162 | 78.3% | 73 min | 3.79% | B− |
| PIT to CLT · Charlotte | 1,981 | 82.5% | 91 min | 1.82% | B |
| PIT to JFK · New York | 1,764 | 85.9% | 79 min | 4.59% | A− |
| PIT to EWR · Newark | 1,741 | 87.0% | 69 min | 5.05% | A− |
| PIT to DEN · Denver | 1,623 | 80.8% | 65 min | 0.74% | B+ |
| PIT to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,511 | 81.6% | 101 min | 1.52% | B |
| PIT to DCA · Washington | 1,413 | 67.3% | 72 min | 3.47% | C− |
| PIT to IAD · Washington | 1,210 | 87.9% | 66 min | 1.40% | A |
| PIT to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,192 | 80.8% | 97 min | 3.27% | B− |
| PIT to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 1,102 | 78.8% | 66 min | 3.09% | B− |
| PIT to BNA · Nashville | 1,101 | 81.3% | 54 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| PIT to MDW · Chicago | 1,097 | 76.7% | 58 min | 1.09% | B |
| PIT to BWI · Baltimore | 1,071 | 85.7% | 57 min | 1.40% | A |
| PIT to DTW · Detroit | 1,005 | 78.2% | 103 min | 1.29% | B |
| PIT to TPA · Tampa | 814 | 78.4% | 73 min | 0.25% | B+ |
| PIT to IAH · Houston | 809 | 85.3% | 62 min | 0.12% | A+ |
| PIT to PHX · Phoenix | 804 | 76.8% | 75 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| PIT to MIA · Miami | 736 | 78.9% | 91 min | 1.22% | B |
| PIT to RDU · Raleigh | 725 | 85.5% | 60 min | 1.24% | A |
| PIT to LAS · Las Vegas | 678 | 83.0% | 54 min | 0.15% | B+ |
| PIT to MSP · Minneapolis | 651 | 82.4% | 104 min | 0.61% | B+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave PIT
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against 21 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am11,890 flights90.7%
- 8am–11am7,618 flights87.1%
- 11am–2pm6,391 flights82.0%
- 2pm–5pm6,100 flights73.7%
- 5pm–8pm8,855 flights68.7%
- 8pm–5am1,914 flights65.6%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.7% of the time, against 65.6% for the overnight window. That is 25 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 11,890 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PIT departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from Pittsburgh (PIT), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.7% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 65.6%, a wide gap of 25.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.7%
- 8–11am87.1%
- 11am–2pm82.0%
- 2–5pm73.7%
- 5–8pm68.7%
- 8pm–5am65.6%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When PIT runs late
PIT's year swings by 13 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
December is the weak month at 73.2% on time, against 86.2% in September. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. July was the busiest month here, with 3,910 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.0%, a spread of 8 points.
PIT month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into PIT
2 European airports send scheduled passenger flights to PIT, 780 flights a year in both directions by the DOT's international count. The DOT keeps no delay record for international flights; the UK routes carry the CAA's departure punctuality, and every route sets its departure airport's EUROCONTROL figures beside PIT's own record above.
Delay causes
Why PIT gets delayed
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 619,000 reported delay minutes.
- 36%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%National Airspace System
- 29%Carrier
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 619,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 618,538 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 90.7% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.16% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.22%.
7.2% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so 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.
42,768 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 PIT
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 86.2% on time and December 73.2%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 41,750 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PIT delay questions
How often is Pittsburgh (PIT) delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.3% of the 42,768 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Pittsburgh (PIT)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 87.1% on time across 3,305 flights. Envoy Air is at the other end on 65.9%, a gap of 21 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 Pittsburgh (PIT)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.7% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 65.6%, 25 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 December delays on Pittsburgh (PIT)?
December is the weakest month at 73.2% on time, compared with 86.2% in September. Across the year that is 13 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- PIT to ORD — Chicago77.1%
- PIT to LGA — New York79.9%
- PIT to ATL — Atlanta89.2%
- PIT to MCO — Orlando79.1%
- PIT to BOS — Boston78.3%
- PIT to CLT — Charlotte82.5%
- Republic Airways on-time record83.2%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record79.4%
- American Airlines on-time record79.8%
- United Airlines on-time record82.1%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Air traffic control delays, airport by airport
Embed PIT’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.