Route reliability record
ATL→PHX
Atlanta to Phoenix
- Flights
- 3,693
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,587 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a B+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 3,693 ATL to PHX flights, of which American Airlines flew 608 at 79.1% on time.
Best time to fly ATL to PHX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.3% of the time and Wednesday flights 78.9%, against 75.2% for the route overall.
American Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 79.1% on time across 608 flights.
Key figures
On time
75.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,650 completed flights
Avg delay
63 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.79%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
79.1% on time across 608 flights
These figures cover 3,693 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 3 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on ATL to PHX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 79.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 72.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 572 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 608 | 79.1% | 100 min | 0.49% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 2,280 | 75.9% | 57 min | 0.88% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 572 | 72.0% | 55 min | 0.35% | C+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 233 | 66.7% | 65 min | 1.72% | C |
American leads Southwest by 7 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on ATL to PHX
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 Phoenix
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 → PHXAtlanta to Phoenix | American Airlines | 78.7% | 79.1% | 0.49% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 2. ATL → PHXAtlanta to Phoenix | Delta Air Lines | 75.2% | 75.9% | 0.88% | 11am–2pm, Wed | DL 348 08:10 |
| 3. ATL → PHXAtlanta to Phoenix | Southwest Airlines | 71.7% | 72.0% | 0.35% | 5am–8am, Mon | — |
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 23 points, against 7 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am336 flights89.3%
- 8am–11am896 flights80.4%
- 11am–2pm644 flights81.1%
- 2pm–5pm253 flights66.7%
- 5pm–8pm825 flights68.2%
- 8pm–5am739 flights68.2%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.3% of the time, against 66.7% for the afternoon window. That is 23 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 896 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ATL to PHX 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 PHX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.3% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 66.7%, a wide gap of 22.6 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.3%
- 8–11am80.4%
- 11am–2pm81.1%
- 2–5pm66.7%
- 5–8pm68.2%
- 8pm–5am68.2%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 18 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.
Delays peak in May, when the on-time rate falls to 67.0%. March is the strongest month at 84.6%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 18 points. April was the busiest month here, with 358 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 78.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.3%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 44% of the 57,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Carrier
- 34%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 44%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 25,000 of the 57,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 57,035 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 89.3% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.79%, below the national 1.89% 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.9% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so 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.
At 1,587 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 80.7% on time across 3,696 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 3,693 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 PHX after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. March runs 84.6% on time and May 67.0%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of May before you think about anything else. 3,650 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ATL to PHX questions
How often is ATL to PHX 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 24.8% of the 3,693 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on ATL to PHX?
American Airlines leads at 79.1% on time across 608 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 72.0%, a gap of 7 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 PHX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.3% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 66.7%, 23 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 May delays on ATL to PHX?
May is the weakest month at 67.0% on time, compared with 84.6% in March. Across the year that is 18 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
- PHX to ATL — the return legseparate record
- Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) delay statistics
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- American Airlines on ATL to PHX79.1%
- Delta Air Lines on ATL to PHX75.9%
- Southwest Airlines on ATL to PHX72.0%
- Frontier Airlines on ATL to PHX66.7%
- ATL to LGA, a related route72.3%
- DEN to PHX, a related route75.6%
- ATL to MCO, a related route70.3%
- American Airlines on-time record79.1%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record75.9%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record72.0%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. ATL to PHX and PHX 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.