Carrier route record
NKFLL→BNA
Spirit Airlines · Fort Lauderdale to Nashville
- Flights
- 622
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 29%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Spirit Airlines.
Spirit on FLL to BNA sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 622 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so Spirit on FLL to BNA runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 57 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
71.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 597 completed flights
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.02%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
71.9%
Every carrier on FLL to BNA, 2,113 flights
These figures cover 622 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Spirit against every carrier on FLL to BNA
Spirit flew 622 of the 2,113 flights on FLL to BNA, about 29% of it. Its 71.9% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 71.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Southwest at 71.9% to Allegiant at 71.1%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,400 | 71.9% | 52 min | 0.71% | C+ |
| Spirit Airlines (this page) | 622 | 71.9% | 72 min | 4.02% | C− |
| Allegiant Airthin sample | 91 | 71.1% | 56 min | 1.10% | C |
Departure window
When Spirit runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 63 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am174 flights92.3%
- 8am–11am42 flights67.5%
- 11am–2pm34 flights29.0%
- 2pm–5pm57 flights69.6%
- 5pm–8pm125 flights65.8%
- 8pm–5am190 flights65.9%
Scale runs 20% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 29.0% on time against 92.3% for 5am–8am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 190 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Spirit on FLL to BNA through the year
December is the weak month at 44.0% on time, against 91.1% in February. 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. December was the busiest month here, with 79 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.2% on time and Monday the weakest at 64.8%. 19 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Spirit runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 46% of the 12,000 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.
- 46%Carrier
- 29%National Airspace System
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 2%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 46%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 5,621 of the 12,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 12,102 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.02%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 12.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 793 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 74.4% on time across 622 flights, within 3 points 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. 622 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 Spirit on FLL to BNA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.02% 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. 597 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- FLL to BNA, every carrier
- Spirit on BNA to FLL, the return leg
- Southwest Airlines on FLL to BNA71.9%
- Spirit Airlines network-wide record
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
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.