Airport month record
RDUJUL
Raleigh-Durham International in July 2025
- Departures
- 4,907
- Month
- July 2025
- National, same month
- 71.1%
- Carriers
- 11
Historical statistics for July 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s July. For today’s conditions at RDU, see live FAA status.
RDU in July carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.8% of scheduled flights never operate, against 2.5% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 4,907 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,084 at 78.8% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 78.8% on time across 1,084 flights.
Key figures
On time
71.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,695 completed departures
Avg delay
97 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.81%
Nationally in July: 2.45%
Whole year
79.0%
RDU across all twelve months
These figures cover 4,907 departures from Raleigh-Durham International in July 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
July next to RDU's other months
Against RDU's own year, July ran 7 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 79.0%, which makes it the worst of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations are where July stands out: 3.81% of scheduled departures were called off, 1.7 times the airport's rate across the year.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 (this page) | 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 | 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 July
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 38 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,227 flights88.5%
- 8am–11am803 flights85.2%
- 11am–2pm762 flights75.9%
- 2pm–5pm796 flights59.3%
- 5pm–8pm1,068 flights51.2%
- 8pm–5am251 flights50.4%
Scale runs 40% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 50.4% on time, against 88.5% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,227 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 79.7% on time and Thursday the weakest at 68.3%. 11 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at RDU in July
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 78.8% of the time; Republic Airways manages 66.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 622 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,084 | 78.8% | 87 min | 0.65% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 992 | 69.6% | 99 min | 3.33% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines | 845 | 73.7% | 78 min | 1.66% | C |
| Republic Airways | 622 | 66.8% | 95 min | 10.93% | C− |
| United Airlines | 523 | 70.5% | 114 min | 3.06% | C− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 331 | 65.7% | 124 min | 5.14% | C− |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 246 | 75.1% | 134 min | 4.88% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 89 | 58.3% | 99 min | 5.62% | D− |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 62 | 59.7% | 53 min | 0.00% | D+ |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 60 | 55.1% | 68 min | 15.00% | D− |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 53 | 57.4% | 116 min | 11.32% | D− |
Republic Airways cancels 10.9% 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 RDU in July
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RDU to ATL · Atlanta | 398 | 82.5% | 95 min | 1.01% | B |
| RDU to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 292 | 71.2% | 82 min | 2.40% | C |
| RDU to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 276 | 65.2% | 75 min | 2.54% | C |
| RDU to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 252 | 65.2% | 152 min | 15.48% | C− |
| RDU to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 230 | 70.7% | 119 min | 2.17% | C |
| RDU to MIA · Miamithin sample | 224 | 68.8% | 129 min | 2.23% | C |
| RDU to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 219 | 57.5% | 117 min | 8.68% | D− |
| RDU to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 217 | 67.2% | 86 min | 12.90% | C− |
| RDU to MCO · Orlandothin sample | 216 | 78.1% | 88 min | 2.78% | B |
| RDU to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 206 | 66.7% | 66 min | 3.40% | C− |
| RDU to DEN · Denverthin sample | 183 | 66.5% | 78 min | 0.55% | C+ |
| RDU to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 173 | 72.9% | 81 min | 2.89% | C |
| RDU to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 169 | 74.5% | 116 min | 4.73% | C− |
| RDU to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 145 | 62.5% | 141 min | 11.72% | D− |
| RDU to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 144 | 59.2% | 168 min | 9.72% | D− |
| RDU to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 143 | 80.3% | 99 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| RDU to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 119 | 70.3% | 60 min | 0.84% | C+ |
| RDU to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 119 | 72.8% | 77 min | 2.52% | C |
| RDU to TPA · Tampathin sample | 109 | 58.7% | 88 min | 0.00% | D+ |
| RDU to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample | 102 | 78.0% | 64 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| RDU to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample | 94 | 92.5% | 63 min | 1.06% | A |
| RDU to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 93 | 71.0% | 52 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| RDU to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 84 | 79.8% | 49 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| RDU to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 78 | 84.4% | 67 min | 1.28% | B |
| RDU to IAD · Washingtonthin sample | 78 | 84.9% | 160 min | 6.41% | B− |
Delay causes
What held RDU up in July
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 129,000 reported delay minutes.
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%National Airspace System
- 25%Carrier
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
41% 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 129,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 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 129,446 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.81%, against 2.45% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 13.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 12.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
What to do with this
Flying from RDU in July
For a July trip through RDU: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 88.5% on time, and with 13.4% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in September would.
Related
Where to go next
- Raleigh-Durham International (RDU), the whole year
- 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 April82.4%
- 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.