Salt Lake City, UT · departure reliability
SLC
Salt Lake City International
- Departures
- 136,504
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Carriers
- 20
- US rank
- #29 by volume
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City International lands a B, 6 points better than the national rate of 75.9%. About one flight in six arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 136,504 flights, of which Hawaiian Airlines flew 23,311 at 89.4% on time.
Hawaiian Airlines is the most reliable of the twenty carriers covered here at 89.4% on time across 23,311 flights.
Key figures
On time
82.1%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
48 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.06%
National rate is 2.23%
Best carrier
Hawaiian
89.4% on time here
These figures cover 137,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. The median arrival is 3 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of SLC
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Hawaiian Airlines arrives on time 89.4% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 71.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 6,958 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hawaiian Airlines | 23,311 | 89.4% | 43 min | 0.57% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 19,640 | 84.1% | 45 min | 1.75% | B |
| Sun Country Airlines | 16,753 | 80.7% | 47 min | 1.82% | B |
| Republic Airways | 15,555 | 81.8% | 51 min | 2.34% | B |
| Horizon Air | 9,641 | 84.4% | 47 min | 1.50% | B |
| Breeze Airways | 7,261 | 75.0% | 50 min | 3.21% | B− |
| Spirit Airlines | 6,958 | 71.8% | 53 min | 4.28% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 5,105 | 75.4% | 51 min | 3.55% | B− |
| PSA Airlines | 4,871 | 80.3% | 45 min | 1.97% | B |
| Envoy Air | 4,859 | 77.4% | 49 min | 3.85% | B− |
| Alaska Airlines | 4,062 | 84.9% | 47 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| Air Wisconsin | 4,057 | 77.6% | 46 min | 4.12% | B− |
| Endeavor Air | 3,082 | 85.6% | 44 min | 2.47% | A |
| JetBlue Airways | 3,079 | 74.9% | 53 min | 3.09% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,277 | 79.5% | 49 min | 2.37% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 2,122 | 78.4% | 51 min | 1.70% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,579 | 89.4% | 40 min | 0.63% | A+ |
| United Airlines | 1,209 | 87.0% | 42 min | 2.40% | A |
| Mesa Airlines | 563 | 76.7% | 49 min | 4.26% | B− |
| Allegiant Air | 520 | 79.7% | 46 min | 3.08% | B− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.3% 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 SLC
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from SLC, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 82.1%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SLC to MDW · Chicago | 14,481 | 88.4% | 39 min | 0.66% | A+ |
| SLC to ATL · Atlanta | 12,296 | 82.4% | 45 min | 1.89% | B |
| SLC to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 10,238 | 87.7% | 46 min | 2.00% | A |
| SLC to MSP · Minneapolis | 8,280 | 80.4% | 37 min | 1.96% | B |
| SLC to PHL · Philadelphia | 7,318 | 80.9% | 48 min | 1.79% | B |
| SLC to BWI · Baltimore | 5,655 | 84.4% | 43 min | 1.40% | B |
| SLC to LAS · Las Vegas | 4,306 | 87.3% | 50 min | 1.74% | A |
| SLC to PHX · Phoenix | 4,026 | 78.0% | 50 min | 3.35% | B− |
| SLC to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 3,740 | 76.4% | 54 min | 1.12% | B |
| SLC to LAX · Los Angeles | 3,214 | 87.5% | 38 min | 0.68% | A+ |
| SLC to JFK · New York | 3,052 | 78.6% | 53 min | 2.65% | B |
| SLC to IAD · Washington | 2,936 | 85.1% | 39 min | 0.58% | A+ |
| SLC to MIA · Miami | 2,896 | 81.2% | 47 min | 1.52% | B |
| SLC to DEN · Denver | 2,879 | 68.8% | 57 min | 2.08% | C |
| SLC to ORD · Chicago | 2,623 | 75.8% | 52 min | 2.78% | B |
| SLC to EWR · Newark | 2,605 | 71.1% | 57 min | 4.41% | C− |
| SLC to STL · St. Louis | 2,453 | 77.3% | 51 min | 5.54% | B− |
| SLC to CMH · Columbus | 2,331 | 75.9% | 50 min | 6.48% | B− |
| SLC to AUS · Austin | 2,252 | 80.5% | 52 min | 3.86% | B− |
| SLC to MCO · Orlando | 2,242 | 83.1% | 50 min | 3.35% | B− |
| SLC to DTW · Detroit | 2,172 | 81.6% | 51 min | 2.39% | B |
| SLC to SJC · San Jose | 2,068 | 73.2% | 54 min | 1.26% | C |
| SLC to PDX · Portland | 1,923 | 82.1% | 47 min | 1.51% | B |
| SLC to BOS · Boston | 1,826 | 79.0% | 48 min | 1.86% | B |
| SLC to SEA · Seattle | 1,776 | 83.2% | 46 min | 3.38% | B− |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave SLC
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 137,000 flights.
- 5am–8am21,163 flights85.9%
- 8am–11am27,983 flights84.0%
- 11am–2pm25,254 flights82.2%
- 2pm–5pm23,887 flights80.1%
- 5pm–8pm24,572 flights77.7%
- 8pm–5am13,650 flights82.7%
Scale runs 70% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 85.9% of the time, against 77.7% for the evening window. That is 8 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.
Across the year
When SLC runs late
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 136,504 flights. The strip shows how much of SLC's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
July is the worst month at 77.8% on time, 8 points below September, the best at 85.8%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck.
The day of the week is close to irrelevant here: 3 points separates the best day from the worst. Weekly demand peaks are not what drives the delays on this operation.
Delay causes
Why SLC gets delayed
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 1.14 million reported delay minutes.
- 32%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 29%National Airspace System
- 9%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 85.9% on time here.
No single cause dominates. late-arriving aircraft at 32%, carrier at 30% and national airspace system at 29% split the 1.14 million reported delay minutes between them. An even spread like this usually means the operation is running close to its designed capacity with no one obvious weak point, and it is the hardest pattern for a traveller to route around.
Cancellations sit at 2.06% against a national 2.23%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.23%.
6.6% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.6%. 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 are the roughly 50 minutes kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
136,504 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
What to do with this
Flying out of SLC
Put together: take the 5am–8am departure, avoid July if the dates are flexible, and if two carriers are within a few dollars of each other, Hawaiian is the one with the record behind it. None of that guarantees an on-time arrival; it moves the odds by 18 points, which is the most any booking decision can do.
Common questions
SLC delay questions
How often is Salt Lake City (SLC) delayed?
About one flight in six arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.9% of the 136,504 flights in this analysis, against 24.1% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 50 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Salt Lake City (SLC)?
Hawaiian Airlines leads at 89.4% on time across 23,311 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 71.8%, a gap of 18 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on Salt Lake City (SLC)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 85.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 77.7%, 8 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on Salt Lake City (SLC)?
July is the weakest month at 77.8% on time, compared with 85.8% in September. Across the year that is 8 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- SLC to MDW — Chicago88.4%
- SLC to ATL — Atlanta82.4%
- Hawaiian Airlines on-time record89.4%
- American Airlines on-time record84.1%
- Sun Country Airlines on-time record80.7%
- Republic Airways on-time record81.8%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 11.3 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.