Airport month record

RSWOCT

Southwest Florida International in October 2025

Departures: 2,369
Month: October 2025
National, same month: 79.7%
Carriers: 7

Historical statistics for October 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s October. For today’s conditions at RSW, see live FAA status.

RSW in October lands a B+, 2 points better than the national rate of 79.7%. About one flight in five 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 2,369 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 540 at 86.7% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 86.7% on time across 540 flights.

On time

81.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,351 completed departures

Avg delay

74 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.59%

Nationally in October: 0.53%

Whole year

78.1%

RSW across all twelve months

These figures cover 2,369 departures from Southwest Florida International in October 2025. 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

October next to RSW's other months

Against RSW's own year, October ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.1%, which makes it number four of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for RSW in October, at 0.59% against 1.86% across the year. Either side of it, September ran 88.2% on time and November 81.7%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better 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 (this page)	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	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 October

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 26 points, against 5 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am386 flights95.3%
8am–11am402 flights94.8%
11am–2pm588 flights80.7%
2pm–5pm443 flights71.2%
5pm–8pm487 flights68.9%
8pm–5am63 flights74.6%

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 95.3% of the time, against 68.9% for the evening window. That is 26 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 588 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.4%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at RSW in October

The three carriers here are closely matched: 5 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.

Carriers at RSW in October 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	646	81.5%	52 min	0.31%	B+
Delta Air Lines	540	86.7%	83 min	0.74%	A+
United Airlines	421	83.3%	83 min	0.71%	B+
American Airlinesthin sample	350	77.2%	86 min	0.57%	B+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	259	70.0%	72 min	0.77%	C+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	85	84.5%	49 min	1.18%	B
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	68	79.4%	135 min	0.00%	B+

No carrier stands out. Delta tops the table at 86.7%, 5 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of RSW in October

Routes from RSW in October 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
RSW to ATL · Atlantathin sample	210	91.3%	69 min	0.48%	A+
RSW to ORD · Chicagothin sample	201	83.6%	106 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to EWR · Newarkthin sample	162	66.5%	79 min	0.62%	C+
RSW to DTW · Detroitthin sample	129	88.3%	81 min	0.78%	A+
RSW to BOS · Bostonthin sample	127	64.0%	74 min	1.57%	D
RSW to CLT · Charlottethin sample	121	86.8%	88 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	113	82.3%	35 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	92	74.4%	68 min	1.09%	C
RSW to MDW · Chicagothin sample	91	84.6%	45 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to DEN · Denverthin sample	91	82.4%	74 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to STL · St. Louisthin sample	87	86.2%	33 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	81	71.2%	73 min	1.23%	C
RSW to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	79	92.4%	100 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	77	77.0%	39 min	2.60%	B
RSW to IAH · Houstonthin sample	67	94.0%	72 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	61	82.0%	85 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to MCO · Orlandothin sample	61	89.8%	35 min	3.28%	A−
RSW to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	59	64.9%	78 min	1.69%	D
RSW to IND · Indianapolisthin sample	58	75.9%	54 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to CMH · Columbusthin sample	56	71.4%	52 min	0.00%	C+
RSW to HPN · White Plainsthin sample	56	83.9%	69 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to CVG · Cincinnatithin sample	51	86.3%	131 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to MKE · Milwaukeethin sample	47	87.2%	85 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to CLE · Clevelandthin sample	40	85.0%	58 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to PIT · Pittsburghthin sample	35	77.1%	74 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held RSW up in October

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 33,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
51%
National Airspace System
29%
Carrier
19%
Extreme weather
2%

51% 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 33,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 31 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 32,731 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.59%, below the national 0.53% 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.

7.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.3%. 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 October

For a October trip through RSW: expect 81.2% on time and 0.59% cancelled, going by October 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Southwest Florida International (RSW), the whole year
RSW in July73.1%
RSW in August80.8%
RSW in September88.2%
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 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.

Key figures