Carrier route record
NKFLL→TPA
Spirit Airlines · Fort Lauderdale to Tampa
- Flights
- 692
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 49%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Spirit Airlines.
Spirit on FLL to TPA sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 9 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 692 flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so Spirit on FLL to TPA runs 9 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 85 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
68.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 670 completed flights
Avg delay
69 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.89%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
72.2%
Every carrier on FLL to TPA, 1,412 flights
These figures cover 692 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 14.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Spirit against every carrier on FLL to TPA
Spirit flew 692 of the 1,412 flights on FLL to TPA, about 49% of it. Its 68.8% on time is 3 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 72.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Southwest at 86.8% to JetBlue at 63.6%. Two 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 Airlinesthin sample | 364 | 86.8% | 53 min | 0.27% | A+ |
| Spirit Airlines (this page) | 692 | 68.8% | 69 min | 2.89% | C |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 356 | 63.6% | 95 min | 2.81% | D |
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
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 40 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am219 flights91.0%
- 8am–11am21 flights—
- 11am–2pm28 flights—
- 2pm–5pm169 flights56.9%
- 5pm–8pm100 flights64.5%
- 8pm–5am155 flights50.7%
Scale runs 40% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 50.7% on time, against 91.0% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 219 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Spirit on FLL to TPA through the year
September is the best month on the calendar at 80.0% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. January was the busiest month here, with 94 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 60.4%, a spread of 20 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Spirit on FLL to TPA runs when it is late
The 209 late arrivals split 44 under half an hour, 71 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 94 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early114 flights17.0%
- Within 15 min347 flights51.8%
- 15–29 min late44 flights6.6%
- 30–59 min late71 flights10.6%
- 1–2 hours late65 flights9.7%
- 2+ hours late29 flights4.3%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 670 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 222 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 23 made it up before arrival. Only 10 left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Spirit on FLL to TPA
The latest arrival of the period was on 22 February 2026, 5 hours 25 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across February, March, November and September, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 22 February 2026 | 5 hours 25 minutes | Carrier |
| 13 March 2026 | 4 hours 13 minutes | Carrier |
| 15 February 2026 | 4 hours 11 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 29 November 2025 | 3 hours 43 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 8 September 2025 | 3 hours 19 minutes | Extreme weather |
Delay causes
Why Spirit runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 46% of the 14,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Carrier
- 26%National Airspace System
- 24%Late-arriving aircraft
- 3%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 46%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 6,701 of the 14,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 14,476 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.89%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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 costs
14.0% 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 197 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 67.8% on time across 691 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.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 692 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 TPA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 2.89% 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. 670 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- FLL to TPA, every carrier
- Spirit on TPA to FLL, the return leg
- Southwest Airlines on FLL to TPA86.8%
- JetBlue Airways on FLL to TPA63.6%
- Spirit Airlines network-wide record
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- Tampa International (TPA) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.