Tampa, FL · departure reliability
TPA
Tampa International
- Departures
- 76,349
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 9
- US rank
- #28 by volume
Tampa
Tampa International lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 76,349 flights, of which United Airlines flew 8,554 at 82.2% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the nine carriers covered here at 82.2% on time across 8,554 flights.
Key figures
On time
78.2%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
73 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.64%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
82.2% on time here
These figures cover 76,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of TPA
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 82.2% of the time; Envoy Air manages 72.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,109 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 23,749 | 77.5% | 55 min | 0.99% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 14,082 | 80.6% | 79 min | 1.75% | B |
| American Airlines | 13,821 | 78.1% | 94 min | 1.96% | B |
| United Airlines | 8,554 | 82.2% | 76 min | 0.85% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 6,533 | 77.2% | 82 min | 1.96% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 5,131 | 73.9% | 77 min | 3.49% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,289 | 73.1% | 75 min | 3.76% | C− |
| Envoy Air | 1,109 | 72.5% | 70 min | 1.98% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 986 | 73.6% | 53 min | 0.91% | C+ |
Spirit Airlines cancels 3.8% 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 TPA
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from TPA, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 78.2%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TPA to ATL · Atlanta | 6,200 | 79.6% | 74 min | 1.44% | B |
| TPA to ORD · Chicago | 3,171 | 72.9% | 86 min | 1.55% | C |
| TPA to DEN · Denver | 3,089 | 81.1% | 67 min | 0.36% | B+ |
| TPA to CLT · Charlotte | 3,037 | 83.7% | 79 min | 1.55% | B |
| TPA to MIA · Miami | 2,924 | 78.6% | 105 min | 1.09% | B |
| TPA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,917 | 75.7% | 89 min | 2.98% | B |
| TPA to BOS · Boston | 2,784 | 74.3% | 76 min | 3.20% | C− |
| TPA to LGA · New York | 2,764 | 74.3% | 93 min | 3.29% | C− |
| TPA to PHL · Philadelphia | 2,659 | 74.3% | 90 min | 2.41% | C |
| TPA to BWI · Baltimore | 2,626 | 81.9% | 55 min | 1.75% | B |
| TPA to EWR · Newark | 2,506 | 78.4% | 80 min | 2.00% | B |
| TPA to BNA · Nashville | 2,487 | 74.4% | 55 min | 1.01% | C |
| TPA to JFK · New York | 2,307 | 78.6% | 77 min | 4.16% | B− |
| TPA to DTW · Detroit | 2,292 | 81.2% | 74 min | 1.83% | B |
| TPA to DCA · Washington | 2,249 | 74.7% | 76 min | 2.49% | C |
| TPA to SJU · San Juan | 1,561 | 72.7% | 76 min | 1.79% | C |
| TPA to AUS · Austin | 1,560 | 80.1% | 64 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| TPA to MDW · Chicago | 1,554 | 75.0% | 57 min | 2.19% | B |
| TPA to IAH · Houston | 1,523 | 86.3% | 86 min | 0.53% | A+ |
| TPA to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 1,410 | 72.3% | 69 min | 3.19% | C− |
| TPA to RDU · Raleigh | 1,294 | 81.6% | 72 min | 1.85% | B |
| TPA to DAL · Dallas | 1,291 | 76.3% | 54 min | 1.47% | B |
| TPA to IAD · Washington | 1,288 | 85.8% | 72 min | 1.01% | A |
| TPA to STL · St. Louis | 1,237 | 83.1% | 57 min | 0.57% | B+ |
| TPA to PHX · Phoenix | 1,213 | 80.5% | 81 min | 0.41% | B+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave TPA
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 29 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am15,409 flights91.8%
- 8am–11am14,982 flights87.2%
- 11am–2pm13,125 flights81.1%
- 2pm–5pm12,307 flights70.2%
- 5pm–8pm14,329 flights64.9%
- 8pm–5am6,197 flights62.5%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 62.5% on time, against 91.8% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 15,409 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter TPA departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from Tampa (TPA), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.8% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 62.5%, a wide gap of 29.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.8%
- 8–11am87.2%
- 11am–2pm81.1%
- 2–5pm70.2%
- 5–8pm64.9%
- 8pm–5am62.5%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When TPA runs late
TPA's year swings by 15 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
July is the worst month at 71.9% on time, 15 points below September, the best at 87.1%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 7,679 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.8%, a spread of 12 points.
TPA month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into TPA
5 European airports send scheduled passenger flights to TPA, 2,692 flights a year in both directions by the DOT's international count. The DOT keeps no delay record for international flights; the UK routes carry the CAA's departure punctuality, and every route sets its departure airport's EUROCONTROL figures beside TPA's own record above.
Delay causes
Why TPA gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 1.19 million delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 1.19 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. The split is drawn from 1,191,355 reported delay minutes.
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 91.8% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.64% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.29%.
8.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so 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.
76,349 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 TPA
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 87.1% on time and July 71.9%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 74,878 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
TPA delay questions
How often is Tampa (TPA) delayed?
Roughly one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.8% of the 76,349 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Tampa (TPA)?
United Airlines leads at 82.2% on time across 8,554 flights. Envoy Air is at the other end on 72.5%, a gap of 10 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 Tampa (TPA)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 62.5%, 29 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 Tampa (TPA)?
July is the weakest month at 71.9% on time, compared with 87.1% in September. Across the year that is 15 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
- TPA to ATL — Atlanta79.6%
- TPA to ORD — Chicago72.9%
- TPA to DEN — Denver81.1%
- TPA to CLT — Charlotte83.7%
- TPA to MIA — Miami78.6%
- TPA to DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth75.7%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record77.5%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record80.6%
- American Airlines on-time record78.1%
- United Airlines on-time record82.2%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Embed TPA’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.