Airport month record
RSWMAR
Southwest Florida International in March 2026
- Departures
- 4,504
- Month
- March 2026
- National, same month
- 75.7%
- Carriers
- 7
Historical statistics for March 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s March. For today’s conditions at RSW, see live FAA status.
RSW in March carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.2% of scheduled flights never operate, against 2.9% 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 4,504 flights, of which United Airlines flew 733 at 82.9% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the five carriers covered here at 82.9% on time across 733 flights.
Key figures
On time
71.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,331 completed departures
Avg delay
86 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.22%
Nationally in March: 2.90%
Whole year
78.1%
RSW across all twelve months
These figures cover 4,504 departures from Southwest Florida International in March 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
March next to RSW's other months
Against RSW's own year, March ran 7 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 78.1%, which makes it the worst of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations are where March stands out: 3.22% of scheduled departures were called off, 1.7 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, February ran 73.8% on time and April 81.0%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.
| 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 | 3,551 | 73.8% | 70 min | 2.87% | C |
| March 2026 (this page) | 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 March
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 34 points, against 23 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am695 flights90.7%
- 8am–11am788 flights82.7%
- 11am–2pm989 flights70.5%
- 2pm–5pm713 flights66.8%
- 5pm–8pm830 flights56.5%
- 8pm–5am489 flights56.6%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 56.5% on time, against 90.7% 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 989 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 77.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 63.5%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at RSW in March
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 82.9% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 60.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 521 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,113 | 70.5% | 61 min | 3.32% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 846 | 72.6% | 91 min | 4.02% | C− |
| American Airlines | 749 | 75.1% | 122 min | 2.54% | B |
| United Airlines | 733 | 82.9% | 84 min | 1.23% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 521 | 60.0% | 90 min | 1.92% | D |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 296 | 63.9% | 93 min | 3.04% | D− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 205 | 51.1% | 71 min | 12.68% | F− |
Delta Air Lines cancels 4.0% 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 March
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RSW to ORD · Chicago | 468 | 72.5% | 95 min | 4.06% | C− |
| RSW to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 326 | 60.8% | 91 min | 3.07% | D− |
| RSW to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 289 | 65.2% | 82 min | 5.19% | C− |
| RSW to ATL · Atlantathin sample | 283 | 76.4% | 107 min | 3.89% | B− |
| RSW to EWR · Newarkthin sample | 229 | 77.0% | 81 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| RSW to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 177 | 80.0% | 120 min | 1.13% | B |
| RSW to CLE · Clevelandthin sample | 170 | 74.9% | 98 min | 1.18% | C |
| RSW to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 166 | 64.2% | 94 min | 2.41% | D |
| RSW to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 163 | 66.7% | 65 min | 4.29% | C− |
| RSW to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 158 | 72.3% | 88 min | 6.33% | C− |
| RSW to DEN · Denverthin sample | 155 | 78.4% | 103 min | 1.29% | B |
| RSW to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 150 | 84.2% | 268 min | 2.00% | B |
| RSW to BWI · Baltimorethin sample | 149 | 68.3% | 54 min | 4.03% | C− |
| RSW to IND · Indianapolisthin sample | 135 | 69.9% | 62 min | 1.48% | C |
| RSW to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 134 | 82.0% | 72 min | 4.48% | B− |
| RSW to JFK · New Yorkthin sample | 125 | 68.3% | 69 min | 4.00% | C− |
| RSW to CMH · Columbusthin sample | 104 | 74.3% | 54 min | 2.88% | C |
| RSW to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 93 | 67.0% | 68 min | 2.15% | C |
| RSW to LGA · New Yorkthin sample | 92 | 53.7% | 73 min | 8.70% | F− |
| RSW to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 91 | 87.6% | 107 min | 2.20% | A |
| RSW to CVG · Cincinnatithin sample | 90 | 71.3% | 105 min | 2.22% | C |
| RSW to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 90 | 72.4% | 54 min | 3.33% | C− |
| RSW to MKE · Milwaukeethin sample | 68 | 60.9% | 54 min | 4.41% | D− |
| RSW to HPN · White Plainsthin sample | 62 | 69.5% | 42 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| RSW to PIT · Pittsburghthin sample | 60 | 67.8% | 63 min | 1.67% | C |
Delay causes
What held RSW up in March
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 107,000 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.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
48% 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 107,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 27 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 106,793 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.22%, against 2.90% nationally. That is about 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. 11.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 9.5% 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 March
For a March trip through RSW: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 90.7% on time, and with 11.1% 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 February73.8%
- 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.