Airport month record
RSWFEB
Southwest Florida International in February 2026
- Departures
- 3,551
- Month
- February 2026
- National, same month
- 80.2%
- Carriers
- 7
Historical statistics for February 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s February. For today’s conditions at RSW, see live FAA status.
RSW in February sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 6 points worse than the national rate of 80.2%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 3,551 flights, of which United Airlines flew 592 at 84.3% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 84.3% on time across 592 flights.
Key figures
On time
73.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,442 completed departures
Avg delay
70 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.87%
Nationally in February: 2.25%
Whole year
78.1%
RSW across all twelve months
These figures cover 3,551 departures from Southwest Florida International in February 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
February next to RSW's other months
Against RSW's own year, February ran 4 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 78.1%, which makes it number ten of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where February stands out: 2.87% of scheduled departures were called off, 1.5 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, January ran 78.6% on time and March 71.2%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 2,315 | 73.1% | 81 min | 2.46% | C |
| August 2025 | 2,060 | 80.8% | 78 min | 1.12% | B |
| September 2025 | 1,847 | 88.2% | 90 min | 0.16% | A+ |
| October 2025 | 2,369 | 81.2% | 74 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| November 2025 | 2,991 | 81.7% | 95 min | 1.37% | B |
| December 2025 | 3,480 | 74.2% | 86 min | 1.93% | C |
| January 2026 | 3,454 | 78.6% | 80 min | 4.11% | B− |
| February 2026 (this page) | 3,551 | 73.8% | 70 min | 2.87% | C |
| March 2026 | 4,504 | 71.2% | 86 min | 3.22% | C− |
| April 2026 | 3,632 | 81.0% | 80 min | 0.69% | B+ |
| May 2026 | 2,802 | 82.5% | 81 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| June 2026 | 2,087 | 79.6% | 77 min | 0.91% | B+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave RSW in February
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 30 points, against 25 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am573 flights88.1%
- 8am–11am531 flights83.4%
- 11am–2pm837 flights74.5%
- 2pm–5pm648 flights69.3%
- 5pm–8pm671 flights64.2%
- 8pm–5am291 flights57.8%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 57.8% on time, against 88.1% 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 837 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.0% on time and Friday the weakest at 64.5%. 18 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at RSW in February
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 84.3% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 59.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 432 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 842 | 71.4% | 55 min | 0.71% | C+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 709 | 78.3% | 77 min | 1.97% | B |
| American Airlines | 597 | 79.3% | 63 min | 1.84% | B |
| United Airlines | 592 | 84.3% | 55 min | 1.86% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 432 | 59.3% | 80 min | 9.03% | D− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 188 | 62.1% | 113 min | 3.19% | D− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 157 | 56.6% | 68 min | 8.92% | D− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 9.0% 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 in February
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSW to ORD · Chicagothin sample | 342 | 73.6% | 52 min | 1.17% | C |
| RSW to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 250 | 81.4% | 61 min | 1.20% | B |
| RSW to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 239 | 63.6% | 79 min | 9.21% | D− |
| RSW to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 208 | 74.1% | 105 min | 1.44% | C |
| RSW to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 184 | 78.0% | 73 min | 5.98% | B− |
| RSW to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 161 | 86.1% | 52 min | 1.86% | A |
| RSW to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 142 | 68.9% | 68 min | 7.04% | C− |
| RSW to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 135 | 70.7% | 89 min | 8.89% | C− |
| RSW to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 129 | 70.5% | 80 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| RSW to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 127 | 74.8% | 64 min | 2.36% | C |
| RSW to DEN · Denverthin sample | 119 | 76.5% | 59 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| RSW to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 111 | 81.1% | 61 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| RSW to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 110 | 71.6% | 57 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| RSW to CLE · Clevelandthin sample | 106 | 73.3% | 79 min | 0.94% | C+ |
| RSW to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 94 | 73.1% | 55 min | 1.06% | C |
| RSW to IND · Indianapolisthin sample | 89 | 75.0% | 58 min | 1.12% | B |
| RSW to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 84 | 71.1% | 80 min | 1.19% | C |
| RSW to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 80 | 68.9% | 102 min | 7.50% | C− |
| RSW to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 78 | 93.6% | 54 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| RSW to CVG · Cincinnatithin sample | 67 | 74.2% | 130 min | 1.49% | C |
| RSW to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 66 | 67.7% | 45 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| RSW to CMH · Columbusthin sample | 66 | 73.0% | 63 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| RSW to MCO · Orlandothin sample | 56 | 65.5% | 47 min | 1.79% | C |
| RSW to MKE · Milwaukeethin sample | 50 | 78.0% | 36 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| RSW to BDL · Hartfordthin sample | 46 | 45.2% | 64 min | 8.70% | F− |
Delay causes
What held RSW up in February
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 63,000 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.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%National Airspace System
- 26%Carrier
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% 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 63,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 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 62,603 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.87%, against 2.25% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 30 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. 9.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 6.5% 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 RSW in February
For a February trip through RSW: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 88.1% on time, and with 9.5% 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
- Southwest Florida International (RSW), the whole year
- RSW in July73.1%
- RSW in August80.8%
- RSW in September88.2%
- RSW in October81.2%
- RSW in November81.7%
- RSW in December74.2%
- RSW in January78.6%
- RSW in March71.2%
- RSW in April81.0%
- RSW in May82.5%
- RSW in June79.6%
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.