Carrier route record
OHATL→PHL
PSA Airlines · Atlanta to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 834
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 15%
- Carriers
- 6
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with PSA Airlines.
PSA on ATL to PHL carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.6% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 834 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, American Airlines, flew 592 at 78.1% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate PSA on ATL to PHL from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
81.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 795 completed flights
Avg delay
98 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.56%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
74.9%
Every carrier on ATL to PHL, 5,713 flights
These figures cover 834 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 12 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Carrier by carrier
PSA against every carrier on ATL to PHL
PSA flew 834 of the 5,713 flights on ATL to PHL, about 15% of it. Its 81.5% on time is 7 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 74.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of six carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 90.7% to Frontier at 62.4%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 78.1% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 62.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,010 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 156 | 90.7% | 95 min | 3.85% | A− |
| PSA Airlines (this page) | 834 | 81.5% | 98 min | 4.56% | B− |
| American Airlines | 592 | 78.1% | 120 min | 2.03% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 3,028 | 76.1% | 52 min | 2.48% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 93 | 65.2% | 72 min | 1.08% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,010 | 62.4% | 84 min | 2.97% | D |
The spread between American and Frontier is 16 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 16 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Departure window
When PSA runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am116 flights94.5%
- 8am–11am144 flights83.2%
- 11am–2pm276 flights81.6%
- 2pm–5pm123 flights69.8%
- 5pm–8pm175 flights79.4%
- 8pm–5am—
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 94.5% of the time, against 69.8% for the afternoon window. That is 25 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 276 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
PSA on ATL to PHL through the year
December is the weak month at 63.7% on time, against 93.0% in September. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. March was the busiest month here, with 115 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 89.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.5%. 20 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why PSA runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 61% of the 14,000 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.
- 61%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 6%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
61% 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 14,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 19 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 14,341 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 94.5% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.56%, against 1.81% nationally. That is roughly one flight in twenty 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 costs
7.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg runs 82.1% on time across 834 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 834 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking PSA on ATL to PHL
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.56% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 795 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- ATL to PHL, every carrier
- PSA on PHL to ATL, the return leg
- Republic Airways on ATL to PHL90.7%
- American Airlines on ATL to PHL78.1%
- Delta Air Lines on ATL to PHL76.1%
- Frontier Airlines on ATL to PHL62.4%
- PSA Airlines network-wide record
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
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.