Route reliability record
BTV→PHL
Burlington to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 1,145
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 335 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.6% 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 B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 1,145 BTV to PHL flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
Best time to fly BTV to PHL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 84.7% of the time and Tuesday flights 83.0%, against 76.7% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
76.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,081 completed flights
Avg delay
96 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.59%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
76.3% on time across 828 flights
These figures cover 1,145 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.5% 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 BTV to PHL
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 126 | 90.3% | 118 min | 1.59% | A |
| PSA Airlines | 828 | 76.3% | 103 min | 7.13% | B− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 191 | 69.1% | 71 min | 1.57% | C |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
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 half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am356 flights84.7%
- 8am–11am28 flights—
- 11am–2pm320 flights81.5%
- 2pm–5pm191 flights59.8%
- 5pm–8pm250 flights70.6%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 50% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 84.7% of the time, against 59.8% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 356 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter BTV 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 BTV to PHL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 84.7% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 59.8%, a wide gap of 24.9 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am84.7%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm81.5%
- 2–5pm59.8%
- 5–8pm70.6%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 26 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 61.7% on time, 26 points below April, the best at 87.8%. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 119 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 83.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 66.9%, a spread of 16 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 24,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 24,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 24,242 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 84.7% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.59%, against 1.89% 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 actually costs
10.5% 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.
At 335 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 75.0% on time across 1,144 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,145 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 5.59% 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. 1,081 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
BTV to PHL questions
How often is BTV 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 23.3% of the 1,145 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is BTV to PHL compared with the rest of the country?
76.7% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of half a point against it. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on BTV to PHL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 84.7% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 59.8%, 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 BTV to PHL?
July is the weakest month at 61.7% on time, compared with 87.8% in April. Across the year that is 26 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 BTV — the return legseparate record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on BTV to PHL90.3%
- PSA Airlines on BTV to PHL76.3%
- American Airlines on BTV to PHL69.1%
- BTV to ORD, a related route68.3%
- ATL to PHL, a related route74.6%
- BTV to DCA, a related route64.4%
- Republic Airways on-time record90.3%
- PSA Airlines on-time record76.3%
- American Airlines on-time record69.1%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. BTV to PHL and PHL to BTV 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.