Route reliability record
ATL→PHL
Atlanta to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 5,793
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 666 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 5,793 ATL to PHL flights, of which PSA Airlines flew 846 at 80.3% on time.
Best time to fly ATL to PHL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.8% of the time and Wednesday flights 80.2%, against 74.6% for the route overall.
PSA Airlines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 80.3% on time across 846 flights.
Key figures
On time
74.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 5,595 completed flights
Avg delay
81 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.28%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
80.3% on time across 846 flights
These figures cover 5,793 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on ATL to PHL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. PSA Airlines arrives on time 80.3% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 61.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,085 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 121 | 92.4% | 75 min | 2.48% | A |
| PSA Airlines | 846 | 80.3% | 105 min | 4.61% | B− |
| American Airlines | 676 | 77.7% | 125 min | 2.81% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 3,020 | 76.2% | 58 min | 3.11% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 45 | 75.0% | 63 min | 2.22% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,085 | 61.6% | 94 min | 3.13% | D− |
PSA Airlines cancels 4.6% 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.
Flight by flight
Flights on ATL to PHL
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Atlanta to Philadelphia
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. ATL → PHLAtlanta to Philadelphia | PSA Airlines | 76.6% | 80.3% | 4.61% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 2. ATL → PHLAtlanta to Philadelphia | American Airlines | 75.5% | 77.7% | 2.81% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 3. ATL → PHLAtlanta to Philadelphia | Delta Air Lines | 73.8% | 76.2% | 3.11% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 2270 08:55 |
| 4. ATL → PHLAtlanta to Philadelphia | Frontier Airlines | 59.7% | 61.6% | 3.13% | 5am–8am, Tue | F9 2298 10:10 |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am956 flights87.8%
- 8am–11am893 flights80.7%
- 11am–2pm890 flights81.1%
- 2pm–5pm1,350 flights68.3%
- 5pm–8pm765 flights63.3%
- 8pm–5am939 flights67.3%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 63.3% on time, against 87.8% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 1,350 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ATL to PHL 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 ATL to PHL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 87.8% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 63.3%, a wide gap of 24.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am87.8%
- 8–11am80.7%
- 11am–2pm81.1%
- 2–5pm68.3%
- 5–8pm63.3%
- 8pm–5am67.3%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 24 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 60.2% on time, 24 points below September, the best at 84.3%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 564 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.7%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 114,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 114,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 to one. The split is drawn from 114,415 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 34%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 39,000 of the 114,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 3.28%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
10.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 666 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 78.0% on time across 5,793 flights, 3 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 3 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 5,793 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in PHL after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.28% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 5,595 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ATL to PHL questions
How often is ATL to PHL delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 25.4% of the 5,793 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 ATL to PHL?
PSA Airlines leads at 80.3% on time across 846 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 61.6%, a gap of 19 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 ATL to PHL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 63.3%, 25 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 ATL to PHL?
July is the weakest month at 60.2% on time, compared with 84.3% in September. Across the year that is 24 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
- PHL to ATL — the return legseparate record
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on ATL to PHL92.4%
- PSA Airlines on ATL to PHL80.3%
- American Airlines on ATL to PHL77.7%
- Delta Air Lines on ATL to PHL76.2%
- Frontier Airlines on ATL to PHL61.6%
- ATL to LGA, a related route72.3%
- MCO to PHL, a related route71.3%
- ATL to MCO, a related route70.3%
- Republic Airways on-time record92.4%
- PSA Airlines on-time record80.3%
- American Airlines on-time record77.7%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. ATL to PHL and PHL to ATL are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.