Airport month record

RSWMAY

Southwest Florida International in May 2026

Departures: 2,802
Month: May 2026
National, same month: 78.6%
Carriers: 6

Historical statistics for May 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s May. For today’s conditions at RSW, see live FAA status.

RSW in May lands a B+, 4 points better than the national rate of 78.6%. About one flight in six arrives 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 2,802 flights, of which United Airlines flew 473 at 89.3% on time.

United Airlines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 89.3% on time across 473 flights.

On time

82.5%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,775 completed departures

Avg delay

81 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.54%

Nationally in May: 0.92%

Whole year

78.1%

RSW across all twelve months

These figures cover 2,802 departures from Southwest Florida International in May 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

May next to RSW's other months

Against RSW's own year, May ran 4 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.1%, which makes it number two of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for RSW in May, at 0.54% against 1.86% across the year. Either side of it, April ran 81.0% on time and June 79.6%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

RSW month by month
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	4,504	71.2%	86 min	3.22%	C−
April 2026	3,632	81.0%	80 min	0.69%	B+
May 2026 (this page)	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 May

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 27 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am500 flights94.4%
8am–11am438 flights92.4%
11am–2pm667 flights87.7%
2pm–5pm552 flights73.4%
5pm–8pm526 flights67.4%
8pm–5am119 flights73.5%

Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.4% of the time, against 67.4% for the evening window. That is 27 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 667 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 86.7% on time and Thursday the weakest at 79.2%. 8 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at RSW in May

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 89.3% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 78.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 708 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at RSW in May 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	708	78.4%	55 min	0.28%	B+
Delta Air Lines	630	84.7%	81 min	1.43%	B
American Airlines	573	80.4%	111 min	0.52%	B+
United Airlines	473	89.3%	111 min	0.21%	A+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	310	80.5%	68 min	0.00%	B+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	79	82.3%	88 min	0.00%	B+

United leads Southwest by 11 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of RSW in May

Routes from RSW in May 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
RSW to ATL · Atlantathin sample	234	87.9%	91 min	0.85%	A+
RSW to ORD · Chicagothin sample	232	80.1%	67 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to BOS · Bostonthin sample	186	77.4%	58 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to EWR · Newarkthin sample	176	87.9%	164 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to CLT · Charlottethin sample	164	84.1%	195 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	136	79.3%	62 min	0.74%	B+
RSW to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	123	77.1%	49 min	2.44%	B
RSW to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	114	81.6%	143 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to DTW · Detroitthin sample	105	79.6%	97 min	1.90%	B
RSW to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	99	77.6%	92 min	1.01%	B
RSW to DEN · Denverthin sample	95	91.4%	59 min	1.05%	A
RSW to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	92	91.0%	54 min	2.17%	A
RSW to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	92	79.3%	37 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to MDW · Chicagothin sample	92	70.3%	46 min	1.09%	C
RSW to STL · St. Louisthin sample	85	88.2%	42 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	82	79.0%	73 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	82	81.0%	59 min	1.22%	B
RSW to IAH · Houstonthin sample	80	88.8%	167 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to CLE · Clevelandthin sample	71	88.7%	122 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to IND · Indianapolisthin sample	66	75.8%	61 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to MCO · Orlandothin sample	57	83.9%	43 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to HPN · White Plainsthin sample	48	91.5%	34 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to CVG · Cincinnatithin sample	46	91.3%	54 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	46	89.1%	57 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to CMH · Columbusthin sample	36	69.4%	51 min	0.00%	C+

Delay causes

What held RSW up in May

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 39,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
40%
Carrier
34%
National Airspace System
18%
Extreme weather
8%
Security
0%

40% 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 39,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 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 39,331 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.54%, below the national 0.92% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

6.3% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 7.1%. 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 last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from RSW in May

For a May trip through RSW: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 82.5% on time with 0.54% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

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 March71.2%
RSW in April81.0%
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.

Key figures