Fort Myers, FL · departure reliability
RSW
Southwest Florida International
- Departures
- 35,272
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Carriers
- 7
- US rank
- #48 by volume
Fort Myers
Southwest Florida International lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.4%. Roughly one flight in five arrive 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 35,272 flights, of which United Airlines flew 5,853 at 83.8% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 83.8% on time across 5,853 flights.
Key figures
On time
77.8%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
81 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.90%
National rate is 1.80%
Best carrier
United
83.8% on time here
These figures cover 35,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of RSW
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 83.8% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 68.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,211 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 8,274 | 77.7% | 60 min | 1.14% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 7,601 | 81.4% | 87 min | 1.93% | B |
| American Airlines | 6,346 | 76.4% | 100 min | 2.46% | B |
| United Airlines | 5,853 | 83.8% | 80 min | 0.92% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airways | 4,205 | 71.8% | 84 min | 2.64% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,493 | 68.5% | 91 min | 2.55% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,211 | 68.2% | 75 min | 4.79% | C− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.8% 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 77.8%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSW to ORD · Chicago | 3,234 | 76.4% | 81 min | 1.64% | B |
| RSW to ATL · Atlanta | 2,866 | 85.1% | 88 min | 1.74% | A |
| RSW to BOS · Boston | 2,287 | 69.4% | 82 min | 2.80% | C |
| RSW to EWR · Newark | 2,031 | 79.9% | 90 min | 1.77% | B |
| RSW to DTW · Detroit | 1,847 | 74.6% | 82 min | 2.17% | C |
| RSW to CLT · Charlotte | 1,802 | 83.3% | 99 min | 2.11% | B |
| RSW to BWI · Baltimore | 1,454 | 79.7% | 59 min | 1.99% | B |
| RSW to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,393 | 75.2% | 109 min | 2.87% | B |
| RSW to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,342 | 72.1% | 98 min | 3.35% | C− |
| RSW to JFK · New York | 1,279 | 77.5% | 80 min | 4.14% | B− |
| RSW to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,219 | 81.0% | 79 min | 1.31% | B |
| RSW to MDW · Chicago | 1,161 | 76.1% | 57 min | 1.29% | B |
| RSW to DEN · Denver | 1,116 | 80.8% | 70 min | 0.36% | B+ |
| RSW to STL · St. Louis | 1,008 | 82.1% | 60 min | 0.79% | B+ |
| RSW to CLE · Cleveland | 911 | 79.4% | 89 min | 1.21% | B |
| RSW to LGA · New York | 909 | 70.6% | 97 min | 4.40% | C− |
| RSW to IAH · Houston | 882 | 86.8% | 91 min | 0.45% | A+ |
| RSW to DCA · Washington | 829 | 70.8% | 91 min | 3.14% | C− |
| RSW to IND · Indianapolis | 818 | 76.1% | 65 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| RSW to BNA · Nashville | 767 | 79.7% | 55 min | 0.78% | B+ |
| RSW to CVG · Cincinnati | 680 | 80.9% | 104 min | 1.32% | B |
| RSW to HPN · White Plains | 655 | 79.9% | 68 min | 1.07% | B |
| RSW to CMH · Columbus | 646 | 74.9% | 60 min | 1.39% | C |
| RSW to MCO · Orlando | 544 | 82.7% | 51 min | 1.10% | B |
| RSW to PIT · Pittsburgh | 492 | 74.6% | 71 min | 0.41% | 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 30 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am5,876 flights93.2%
- 8am–11am5,396 flights89.0%
- 11am–2pm8,544 flights78.9%
- 2pm–5pm6,261 flights69.5%
- 5pm–8pm6,904 flights66.9%
- 8pm–5am2,291 flights63.0%
Scale runs 55% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 63.0% on time, against 93.2% 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.
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.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.4%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why RSW gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 622,000 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.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 5%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. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 622,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 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 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 93.2% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.90% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.35%.
8.7% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. 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 are the a little over an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
35,272 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.
Common questions
RSW delay questions
How often is Fort Myers (RSW) delayed?
Roughly one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.2% of the 35,272 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% 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 83.8% on time across 5,853 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 68.2%, a gap of 16 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 93.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 63.0%, 30 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
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.