Airport month record

TPASEP

Tampa International in September 2025

Departures: 5,502
Month: September 2025
National, same month: 83.4%
Carriers: 9

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

TPA 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 4 points better than the national rate of 83.4%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 5,502 flights, of which Frontier Airlines flew 475 at 89.7% on time.

Frontier Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 89.7% on time across 475 flights.

On time

87.1%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 5,481 completed departures

Avg delay

73 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.22%

Nationally in September: 0.51%

Whole year

78.1%

TPA across all twelve months

These figures cover 5,502 departures from Tampa 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 TPA's other months

Against TPA's own year, September ran 9 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 TPA in September, at 0.22% against 1.54% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 74.6% on time and October 79.2%, 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 (this page)	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	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 September

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 18 points, against 5 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,272 flights94.0%
8am–11am985 flights94.4%
11am–2pm1,107 flights87.3%
2pm–5pm789 flights84.6%
5pm–8pm1,019 flights76.1%
8pm–5am330 flights77.9%

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

Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 94.4% of the time, against 76.1% for the evening window. That is 18 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 1,272 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 90.6% on time and Friday the weakest at 84.9%. 6 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at TPA in September

The six carriers here are closely matched: 5 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 TPA in September 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	1,592	88.3%	52 min	0.00%	A+
Delta Air Lines	977	88.1%	70 min	0.10%	A+
American Airlines	976	84.9%	101 min	0.51%	B+
United Airlines	589	88.9%	86 min	0.00%	A+
Frontier Airlines	475	89.7%	82 min	0.21%	A+
Spirit Airlines	389	87.9%	81 min	0.51%	A+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	348	80.1%	67 min	0.57%	B+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	77	78.9%	47 min	1.30%	B
Envoy Airthin sample	75	84.0%	56 min	0.00%	B+

No carrier stands out. Frontier tops the table at 89.7%, 5 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 TPA in September

Routes from TPA in September 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
TPA to ATL · Atlanta	432	89.1%	64 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to CLT · Charlottethin sample	265	89.4%	101 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	216	88.8%	116 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to DEN · Denverthin sample	212	86.3%	69 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	206	78.8%	109 min	1.46%	B
TPA to ORD · Chicagothin sample	205	89.2%	87 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to MIA · Miamithin sample	201	85.0%	83 min	0.50%	A+
TPA to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	200	89.5%	62 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to BOS · Bostonthin sample	199	68.5%	67 min	1.01%	C
TPA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	189	88.9%	38 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	182	95.0%	51 min	0.55%	A+
TPA to EWR · Newarkthin sample	173	79.1%	89 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	172	75.9%	62 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	171	90.6%	115 min	0.58%	A+
TPA to DTW · Detroitthin sample	149	93.3%	91 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to IAH · Houstonthin sample	135	94.8%	59 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	123	93.5%	83 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to MDW · Chicagothin sample	111	85.6%	71 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to AUS · Austinthin sample	108	87.0%	61 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	107	83.8%	62 min	1.87%	B
TPA to DAL · Dallasthin sample	90	84.3%	56 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to STL · St. Louisthin sample	90	91.1%	41 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to RDU · Raleighthin sample	89	93.3%	40 min	0.00%	A+
TPA to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	89	79.8%	74 min	0.00%	B+
TPA to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	84	91.7%	73 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held TPA up in September

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 42% of the 52,000 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
42%
Carrier
29%
National Airspace System
23%
Extreme weather
5%
Security
0%

42% 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 52,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 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 51,864 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.22%, 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 4.9% 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 TPA in September

For a September trip through TPA: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 87.1% on time with 0.22% 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 October79.2%
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