Fort Myers, FL · departure reliability
RSW
Southwest Florida International
- Departures
- 34,661
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 7
- US rank
- #48 by volume
Fort Myers
Southwest Florida International lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly 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 34,661 flights, of which United Airlines flew 5,880 at 84.5% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 84.5% on time across 5,880 flights.
Key figures
On time
77.9%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
82 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.91%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
84.5% on time here
These figures cover 35,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of RSW
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 84.5% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 65.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 974 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 8,239 | 76.7% | 59 min | 1.20% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 7,455 | 81.2% | 84 min | 1.92% | B |
| American Airlines | 6,449 | 77.4% | 106 min | 2.11% | B |
| United Airlines | 5,880 | 84.5% | 80 min | 1.02% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 3,940 | 71.9% | 85 min | 3.15% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,470 | 67.8% | 92 min | 2.65% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 974 | 65.7% | 75 min | 5.85% | C− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 5.8% 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 RSW
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from RSW, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 77.9%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSW to ORD · Chicago | 3,238 | 76.4% | 84 min | 1.67% | B |
| RSW to ATL · Atlanta | 2,806 | 85.4% | 83 min | 1.64% | A |
| RSW to BOS · Boston | 2,168 | 69.5% | 84 min | 2.91% | C |
| RSW to EWR · Newark | 1,967 | 79.8% | 88 min | 2.08% | B |
| RSW to CLT · Charlotte | 1,773 | 84.2% | 94 min | 1.41% | B |
| RSW to DTW · Detroit | 1,773 | 74.7% | 81 min | 2.03% | C |
| RSW to BWI · Baltimore | 1,409 | 79.5% | 55 min | 2.27% | B |
| RSW to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,343 | 72.2% | 117 min | 3.05% | C− |
| RSW to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,333 | 77.5% | 107 min | 2.40% | B |
| RSW to JFK · New York | 1,279 | 77.3% | 78 min | 5.08% | B− |
| RSW to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,205 | 80.2% | 81 min | 1.33% | B |
| RSW to MDW · Chicago | 1,165 | 73.0% | 58 min | 1.37% | C |
| RSW to DEN · Denver | 1,160 | 83.2% | 73 min | 0.34% | B+ |
| RSW to STL · St. Louis | 1,010 | 80.2% | 62 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| RSW to CLE · Cleveland | 927 | 77.4% | 89 min | 1.51% | B |
| RSW to LGA · New York | 869 | 69.6% | 97 min | 4.95% | C− |
| RSW to IAH · Houston | 864 | 89.4% | 84 min | 0.35% | A+ |
| RSW to DCA · Washington | 858 | 72.3% | 109 min | 2.45% | C |
| RSW to BNA · Nashville | 828 | 78.2% | 52 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| RSW to IND · Indianapolis | 806 | 76.1% | 64 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| RSW to CVG · Cincinnati | 668 | 80.5% | 94 min | 1.35% | B |
| RSW to CMH · Columbus | 653 | 74.1% | 56 min | 1.53% | C |
| RSW to MCO · Orlando | 613 | 84.1% | 57 min | 0.98% | B+ |
| RSW to HPN · White Plains | 567 | 80.4% | 70 min | 1.41% | B |
| RSW to PIT · Pittsburgh | 475 | 71.2% | 72 min | 0.42% | C+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave RSW
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 31 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am6,030 flights93.4%
- 8am–11am5,099 flights88.5%
- 11am–2pm8,485 flights79.2%
- 2pm–5pm6,178 flights69.8%
- 5pm–8pm6,729 flights66.2%
- 8pm–5am2,140 flights62.3%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 62.3% on time, against 93.4% 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 8,485 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter RSW 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 Fort Myers (RSW), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.4% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 62.3%, a wide gap of 31.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.4%
- 8–11am88.5%
- 11am–2pm79.2%
- 2–5pm69.8%
- 5–8pm66.2%
- 8pm–5am62.3%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 100%.
Across the year
When RSW runs late
RSW's year swings by 17 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 88.2% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 4,504 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.7%, a spread of 11 points.
RSW month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into RSW
1 European airport sends scheduled passenger flights to RSW, 204 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 RSW's own record above.
Delay causes
Why RSW gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 613,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 23%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 613,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 to one. The split is drawn from 612,887 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 93.4% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.91% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.36%.
8.8% 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.
34,661 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 RSW
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 88.2% on time and March 71.2%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 33,875 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
RSW delay questions
How often is Fort Myers (RSW) delayed?
Roughly 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 22.1% of the 34,661 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 Fort Myers (RSW)?
United Airlines leads at 84.5% on time across 5,880 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 65.7%, a gap of 19 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 Fort Myers (RSW)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 62.3%, 31 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 March delays on Fort Myers (RSW)?
March is the weakest month at 71.2% on time, compared with 88.2% in September. Across the year that is 17 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
- RSW to ORD — Chicago76.4%
- RSW to ATL — Atlanta85.4%
- RSW to BOS — Boston69.5%
- RSW to EWR — Newark79.8%
- RSW to CLT — Charlotte84.2%
- RSW to DTW — Detroit74.7%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record76.7%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record81.2%
- American Airlines on-time record77.4%
- United Airlines on-time record84.5%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- US airports with the biggest gap between their best and worst month
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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.