Airport month record

RDUAPR

Raleigh-Durham International in April 2026

Departures: 4,748
Month: April 2026
National, same month: 79.8%
Carriers: 11

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

RDU in April lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 79.8%. 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 4,748 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 991 at 88.0% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 88.0% on time across 991 flights.

On time

82.4%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,715 completed departures

Avg delay

70 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.63%

Nationally in April: 0.90%

Whole year

79.0%

RDU across all twelve months

These figures cover 4,748 departures from Raleigh-Durham 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 RDU's other months

Against RDU's own year, April ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 79.0%, which makes it number two of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for RDU in April, at 0.63% against 2.28% across the year. Either side of it, March ran 77.2% on time and May 81.4%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

RDU month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	4,907	71.6%	97 min	3.81%	C−
August 2025	4,640	78.7%	82 min	1.34%	B
September 2025	4,484	84.6%	81 min	0.51%	B+
October 2025	4,929	79.0%	67 min	0.63%	B+
November 2025	4,796	80.4%	80 min	2.04%	B
December 2025	4,803	73.5%	76 min	1.71%	C
January 2026	4,163	81.0%	76 min	8.17%	B−
February 2026	3,954	82.1%	76 min	3.69%	B−
March 2026	4,658	77.2%	83 min	2.81%	B
April 2026 (this page)	4,748	82.4%	70 min	0.63%	B+
May 2026	4,884	81.4%	67 min	0.86%	B+
June 2026	4,615	77.2%	84 min	2.08%	B

Departure window

The best time of day to leave RDU in April

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,169 flights92.9%
8am–11am744 flights88.8%
11am–2pm813 flights84.8%
2pm–5pm729 flights76.3%
5pm–8pm1,027 flights71.7%
8pm–5am266 flights68.3%

Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.9% of the time, against 68.3% 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 1,169 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 86.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 77.3%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at RDU in April

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 88.0% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 74.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 398 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at RDU in April 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Lines	991	88.0%	62 min	0.61%	A+
American Airlines	782	85.7%	92 min	0.77%	A+
Southwest Airlines	739	79.5%	45 min	0.14%	B+
Republic Airways	686	78.0%	72 min	0.87%	B+
United Airlines	538	86.8%	83 min	0.00%	A+
Frontier Airlines	398	74.4%	80 min	1.01%	C
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	240	85.4%	47 min	0.00%	A+
Envoy Airthin sample	145	79.2%	71 min	0.69%	B+
PSA Airlinesthin sample	129	69.5%	78 min	0.78%	C+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	60	85.0%	44 min	0.00%	A+
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	39	47.1%	95 min	12.82%	F−

The spread between Delta and Frontier is 14 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 14 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of RDU in April

Routes from RDU in April 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
RDU to ATL · Atlanta	371	87.5%	70 min	0.54%	A+
RDU to ORD · Chicagothin sample	354	70.7%	110 min	1.98%	C
RDU to CLT · Charlottethin sample	259	90.3%	46 min	0.00%	A+
RDU to BOS · Bostonthin sample	245	82.8%	61 min	0.41%	B+
RDU to MCO · Orlandothin sample	241	82.1%	63 min	0.41%	B+
RDU to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	235	83.3%	97 min	0.43%	B+
RDU to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	203	72.5%	67 min	1.48%	C
RDU to EWR · Newarkthin sample	197	85.5%	75 min	2.03%	A
RDU to MIA · Miamithin sample	197	82.6%	75 min	1.02%	B
RDU to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	197	79.2%	57 min	0.00%	B+
RDU to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	188	80.6%	73 min	1.06%	B
RDU to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	166	67.7%	80 min	1.20%	C
RDU to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	156	84.0%	64 min	0.00%	B+
RDU to DEN · Denverthin sample	147	83.0%	69 min	0.00%	B+
RDU to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	146	92.5%	52 min	0.00%	A+
RDU to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	130	75.2%	53 min	0.77%	B+
RDU to DTW · Detroitthin sample	128	88.0%	65 min	2.34%	A
RDU to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	113	92.9%	60 min	0.00%	A+
RDU to TPA · Tampathin sample	110	90.0%	71 min	0.00%	A+
RDU to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	104	90.4%	55 min	0.00%	A+
RDU to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	86	79.1%	65 min	0.00%	B+
RDU to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	84	86.9%	40 min	0.00%	A+
RDU to SEA · Seattlethin sample	81	87.7%	38 min	0.00%	A+
RDU to MDW · Chicagothin sample	74	79.2%	50 min	1.35%	B
RDU to IAH · Houstonthin sample	73	90.4%	74 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held RDU up in April

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 58,000 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
27%
National Airspace System
25%
Extreme weather
1%
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 58,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 39 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 57,908 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.63%, 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.

5.8% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from RDU in April

For a April trip through RDU: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 82.4% on time with 0.63% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Raleigh-Durham International (RDU), the whole year
RDU in July71.6%
RDU in August78.7%
RDU in September84.6%
RDU in October79.0%
RDU in November80.4%
RDU in December73.5%
RDU in January81.0%
RDU in February82.1%
RDU in March77.2%
RDU in May81.4%
RDU in June77.2%

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