Airport month record

RSWSEP

Southwest Florida International in September 2025

Departures: 1,847
Month: September 2025
National, same month: 83.4%
Carriers: 7

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

RSW in September earns an A+. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 5 points better than the national rate of 83.4%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs an hour and a half. That rests on 1,847 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 458 at 91.7% on time.

Set against the rest of the country, RSW's September record is 5 points better than the US average of 83.4%. That gap is worth roughly 48 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.

On time

88.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,841 completed departures

Avg delay

90 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.16%

Nationally in September: 0.51%

Whole year

78.1%

RSW across all twelve months

These figures cover 1,847 departures from Southwest Florida International in September 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

September next to RSW's other months

Against RSW's own year, September ran 10 points better than the twelve-month rate of 78.1%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations were unusually low for RSW in September, at 0.16% against 1.86% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 80.8% on time and October 81.2%, 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 (this page)	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	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 September

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 17 points, against 2 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am293 flights97.6%
8am–11am209 flights94.3%
11am–2pm599 flights89.6%
2pm–5pm311 flights81.9%
5pm–8pm398 flights80.9%
8pm–5am37 flights86.5%

Scale runs 70% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 97.6% of the time, against 80.9% for the evening window. That is 17 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 599 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 93.5% on time and Thursday the weakest at 83.3%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at RSW in September

The two carriers here are closely matched: 2 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 September 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Lines	458	91.7%	54 min	0.22%	A+
Southwest Airlines	415	89.9%	58 min	0.00%	A+
American Airlinesthin sample	322	86.8%	155 min	0.31%	A+
United Airlinesthin sample	289	86.8%	67 min	0.35%	A+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	219	80.4%	99 min	0.00%	B+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	75	88.0%	114 min	0.00%	A+
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	69	91.3%	113 min	0.00%	A+

No carrier stands out. Delta tops the table at 91.7%, 2 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 September

Routes from RSW in September 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
RSW to ATL · Atlantathin sample	200	93.0%	52 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to ORD · Chicagothin sample	168	91.6%	182 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to EWR · Newarkthin sample	117	84.6%	92 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to CLT · Charlottethin sample	111	92.8%	54 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to BOS · Bostonthin sample	109	68.8%	102 min	0.00%	C+
RSW to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	90	93.3%	45 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	87	89.7%	72 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to DTW · Detroitthin sample	79	85.9%	55 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	73	78.1%	142 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to MDW · Chicagothin sample	69	91.3%	64 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	68	86.4%	167 min	1.47%	A
RSW to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	60	90.0%	76 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to MCO · Orlandothin sample	60	91.7%	31 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to STL · St. Louisthin sample	60	91.7%	45 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to HPN · White Plainsthin sample	59	91.5%	62 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	56	96.4%	43 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to CVG · Cincinnatithin sample	46	93.3%	98 min	2.17%	A
RSW to IAH · Houstonthin sample	36	75.0%	51 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to DEN · Denverthin sample	36	91.4%	66 min	2.78%	A
RSW to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	34	94.1%	119 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to CLE · Clevelandthin sample	34	94.1%	238 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to ACY · Atlantic Citythin sample	31	93.5%	139 min	0.00%	A+
RSW to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	30	80.0%	53 min	0.00%	B+
RSW to IND · Indianapolisthin sample	30	70.0%	70 min	0.00%	C+
RSW to CMH · Columbusthin sample	30	76.7%	72 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held RSW up in September

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 20,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
40%
Carrier
35%
National Airspace System
20%
Extreme weather
5%

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 20,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 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 19,517 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.16%, below the national 0.51% 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.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.5% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 5.4% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.

What to do with this

Flying from RSW in September

For a September trip through RSW: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 88.2% on time with 0.16% 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 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 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