Route reliability record
FLL→PHL
Fort Lauderdale to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 3,589
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 993 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten 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 3,589 FLL to PHL flights, of which American Airlines flew 1,628 at 77.4% on time.
Best time to fly FLL to PHL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.1% of the time and Wednesday flights 82.5%, against 72.0% for the route overall.
American Airlines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 77.4% on time across 1,628 flights.
Key figures
On time
72.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,456 completed flights
Avg delay
97 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.46%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
77.4% on time across 1,628 flights
These figures cover 3,589 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.5% 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 FLL to PHL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 77.4% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 62.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 657 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 1,628 | 77.4% | 116 min | 2.83% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 572 | 71.3% | 71 min | 5.24% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 732 | 69.0% | 73 min | 3.28% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 657 | 62.3% | 107 min | 3.65% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 5.2% 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 FLL 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 Fort Lauderdale to Philadelphia
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 2 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PBI → PHLWest Palm Beach to Philadelphia | American Airlines | 80.4% | 82.3% | 2.29% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 2642 07:00 |
| 2. FLL → PHLFort Lauderdale to Philadelphia | American Airlines | 75.2% | 77.4% | 2.83% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 3. MIA → PHLMiami to Philadelphia | American Airlines | 73.7% | 76.1% | 3.19% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 4. FLL → PHLFort Lauderdale to Philadelphia | Spirit Airlines | 67.6% | 71.3% | 5.24% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 5. FLL → PHLFort Lauderdale to Philadelphia | JetBlue Airways | 66.7% | 69.0% | 3.28% | 8am–11am, Wed | B6 376 20:59 |
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 39 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am699 flights93.1%
- 8am–11am524 flights83.7%
- 11am–2pm560 flights69.1%
- 2pm–5pm600 flights64.5%
- 5pm–8pm228 flights54.0%
- 8pm–5am978 flights60.6%
Scale runs 45% to 100%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 54.0% on time, against 93.1% 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 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 978 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter FLL 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 FLL to PHL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.1% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 54.0%, a wide gap of 39.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.1%
- 8–11am83.7%
- 11am–2pm69.1%
- 2–5pm64.5%
- 5–8pm54.0%
- 8pm–5am60.6%
best all US flightsScale 45% to 100%.
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.
October is the best month on the calendar at 86.0% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 346 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 65.0%, a spread of 18 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 94,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 15%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 94,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 19 to one. The split is drawn from 93,995 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 93.1% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.46%, 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
12.5% 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.
The 993 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 runs 73.1% on time across 3,588 flights, within about a point 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 3,589 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 3.46% 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. 3,456 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
FLL to PHL questions
How often is FLL to PHL delayed?
Roughly 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 28.0% of the 3,589 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on FLL to PHL?
American Airlines leads at 77.4% on time across 1,628 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 62.3%, a gap of 15 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 FLL to PHL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 54.0%, 39 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 March delays on FLL to PHL?
March is the weakest month at 59.9% on time, compared with 86.0% in October. 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 FLL — the return legseparate record
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- American Airlines on FLL to PHL77.4%
- Spirit Airlines on FLL to PHL71.3%
- JetBlue Airways on FLL to PHL69.0%
- Frontier Airlines on FLL to PHL62.3%
- FLL to ATL, a related route71.0%
- ATL to PHL, a related route74.6%
- FLL to LGA, a related route64.8%
- American Airlines on-time record77.4%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record71.3%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record69.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. FLL to PHL and PHL to FLL 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.