Airport month record

TPAOCT

Tampa International in October 2025

Departures: 6,075
Month: October 2025
National, same month: 79.7%
Carriers: 9

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

TPA in October lands a B+, level with the national rate of 79.7%. About one flight in five 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 6,075 flights, of which United Airlines flew 654 at 84.2% on time.

United Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 84.2% on time across 654 flights.

On time

79.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 6,036 completed departures

Avg delay

68 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.51%

Nationally in October: 0.53%

Whole year

78.1%

TPA across all twelve months

These figures cover 6,075 departures from Tampa 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 TPA's other months

Against TPA's own year, October ran about a point better than the twelve-month rate of 78.1%, which makes it number five of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for TPA in October, at 0.51% against 1.54% across the year. Either side of it, September ran 87.1% on time and November 81.3%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better 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 (this page)	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	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 October

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 35 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,309 flights93.9%
8am–11am1,168 flights90.1%
11am–2pm1,023 flights83.8%
2pm–5pm986 flights71.3%
5pm–8pm1,140 flights61.9%
8pm–5am449 flights59.0%

Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 59.0% on time, against 93.9% 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 1,309 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.6% on time and Monday the weakest at 66.3%. 22 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at TPA in October

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 84.2% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 69.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 404 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at TPA in October 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	1,935	77.2%	47 min	0.10%	B+
Delta Air Lines	1,110	80.5%	77 min	0.54%	B+
American Airlines	1,025	81.8%	92 min	0.68%	B+
United Airlines	654	84.2%	64 min	0.15%	B+
Frontier Airlines	462	81.2%	76 min	0.87%	B+
JetBlue Airways	404	69.8%	83 min	1.49%	C
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	355	79.2%	69 min	1.13%	B
Envoy Airthin sample	65	80.0%	92 min	0.00%	B+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	64	69.8%	83 min	1.56%	C

The spread between United and JetBlue is 14 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 14 more arrivals inside the on-time window.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of TPA in October

Routes from TPA in October 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
TPA to ATL · Atlanta	483	81.8%	75 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to CLT · Charlottethin sample	258	93.4%	67 min	0.39%	A+
TPA to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	248	67.2%	104 min	2.02%	C
TPA to DEN · Denverthin sample	241	80.5%	40 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to ORD · Chicagothin sample	236	82.6%	84 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to BOS · Bostonthin sample	223	69.4%	80 min	1.35%	C
TPA to EWR · Newarkthin sample	219	69.3%	75 min	0.46%	C+
TPA to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	215	82.5%	61 min	1.40%	B
TPA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	214	77.1%	59 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to MIA · Miamithin sample	208	84.1%	67 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	203	77.2%	88 min	0.49%	B+
TPA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	182	70.9%	80 min	1.65%	C
TPA to DTW · Detroitthin sample	182	88.5%	65 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	173	74.7%	58 min	1.73%	C
TPA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	173	81.5%	74 min	1.73%	B
TPA to AUS · Austinthin sample	128	75.0%	48 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to IAH · Houstonthin sample	124	81.5%	68 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to MDW · Chicagothin sample	123	77.2%	54 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to DAL · Dallasthin sample	117	78.1%	46 min	0.85%	B+
TPA to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	113	68.1%	41 min	0.00%	C+
TPA to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	107	90.5%	69 min	1.87%	A
TPA to RDU · Raleighthin sample	107	89.7%	34 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	106	81.1%	58 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	101	79.2%	72 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to MSY · New Orleansthin sample	101	78.2%	43 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held TPA up in October

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 85,000 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
43%
National Airspace System
28%
Carrier
27%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

43% 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 85,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 26 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 85,257 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.51%, 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from TPA in October

For a October trip through TPA: expect 79.2% on time and 0.51% cancelled, going by October 2025. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.

Tampa International (TPA), the whole year
TPA in July69.2%
TPA in August74.6%
TPA in September87.1%
TPA in November81.3%
TPA in December75.4%
TPA in January81.0%
TPA in February77.1%
TPA in March76.4%
TPA in April82.3%
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