Airport month record

TPAAPR

Tampa International in April 2026

Departures: 6,952
Month: April 2026
National, same month: 79.8%
Carriers: 9

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

TPA in April lands a B+, 3 points better than the national rate of 79.8%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 6,952 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,282 at 88.2% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 88.2% on time across 1,282 flights.

On time

82.3%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 6,906 completed departures

Avg delay

65 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.49%

Nationally in April: 0.90%

Whole year

78.1%

TPA across all twelve months

These figures cover 6,952 departures from Tampa International in April 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

April next to TPA's other months

Against TPA's own year, April 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 TPA in April, at 0.49% against 1.54% across the year. Either side of it, March ran 76.4% on time and May 77.0%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

TPA month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	6,770	69.2%	80 min	1.79%	C
August 2025	6,171	74.6%	72 min	0.70%	C+
September 2025	5,502	87.1%	73 min	0.22%	A+
October 2025	6,075	79.2%	68 min	0.51%	B+
November 2025	6,421	81.3%	79 min	2.41%	B
December 2025	6,851	75.4%	74 min	1.36%	B
January 2026	6,432	81.0%	66 min	3.81%	B−
February 2026	6,173	77.1%	61 min	2.25%	B
March 2026	7,679	76.4%	78 min	2.89%	B
April 2026 (this page)	6,952	82.3%	65 min	0.49%	B+
May 2026	6,471	77.0%	76 min	0.68%	B+
June 2026	5,964	77.7%	73 min	0.86%	B+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave TPA in April

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 24 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,417 flights92.5%
8am–11am1,354 flights89.5%
11am–2pm1,095 flights85.9%
2pm–5pm1,109 flights78.2%
5pm–8pm1,401 flights71.0%
8pm–5am576 flights68.5%

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 92.5% of the time, against 68.5% for the overnight window. That is 24 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 1,417 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 86.1% on time and Monday the weakest at 77.9%. 8 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at TPA in April

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 88.2% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 77.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 646 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at TPA in April 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	2,179	80.7%	47 min	0.23%	B+
Delta Air Lines	1,282	88.2%	74 min	0.47%	A+
American Airlines	1,204	81.7%	88 min	0.33%	B+
United Airlines	800	87.7%	61 min	0.12%	A+
Frontier Airlines	646	77.7%	76 min	1.24%	B
JetBlue Airways	433	78.9%	64 min	0.23%	B+
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	220	67.9%	71 min	3.64%	C−
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	90	79.8%	80 min	1.11%	B
Envoy Airthin sample	76	81.6%	45 min	0.00%	B+

Delta leads Frontier 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 TPA in April

Routes from TPA in April 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
TPA to ATL · Atlanta	557	86.1%	64 min	0.54%	A+
TPA to ORD · Chicagothin sample	315	75.6%	71 min	1.27%	B
TPA to BOS · Bostonthin sample	304	78.8%	67 min	0.66%	B+
TPA to CLT · Charlottethin sample	283	87.6%	52 min	0.35%	A+
TPA to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	266	83.7%	62 min	0.38%	B+
TPA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	256	78.3%	59 min	1.17%	B
TPA to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	253	81.2%	73 min	0.79%	B+
TPA to DEN · Denverthin sample	250	85.6%	73 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to EWR · Newarkthin sample	235	93.2%	54 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to DTW · Detroitthin sample	230	82.5%	89 min	0.87%	B+
TPA to MIA · Miamithin sample	227	78.9%	146 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	215	79.5%	41 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	203	82.0%	84 min	0.49%	B+
TPA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	191	87.3%	61 min	0.52%	A+
TPA to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	180	80.6%	80 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	137	76.7%	62 min	2.92%	B
TPA to AUS · Austinthin sample	137	84.7%	38 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to IAH · Houstonthin sample	135	84.4%	60 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to MDW · Chicagothin sample	133	81.1%	30 min	3.01%	B−
TPA to SJU · San Juanthin sample	124	76.2%	65 min	1.61%	B
TPA to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	120	82.5%	57 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	120	90.8%	32 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	120	78.3%	51 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to DAL · Dallasthin sample	110	78.9%	42 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to RDU · Raleighthin sample	110	90.9%	64 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held TPA up in April

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 79,000 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
47%
Carrier
33%
National Airspace System
20%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
0%

47% 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 79,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 43 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 79,405 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.49%, below the national 0.90% 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.

5.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.4%. 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from TPA in April

For a April trip through TPA: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 82.3% on time with 0.49% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Tampa International (TPA), the whole year
TPA in July69.2%
TPA in August74.6%
TPA in September87.1%
TPA in October79.2%
TPA in November81.3%
TPA in December75.4%
TPA in January81.0%
TPA in February77.1%
TPA in March76.4%
TPA in May77.0%
TPA in June77.7%

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