Route reliability record
MEM→PHL
Memphis to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 758
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 875 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.7% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, more than four flights in five 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 758 MEM to PHL flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
Best time to fly MEM to PHL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 95.3% of the time and Wednesday flights 89.2%, against 82.4% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 5 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 48 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
82.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 727 completed flights
Avg delay
83 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.69%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
PSA
82.9% on time across 550 flights
These figures cover 758 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 12 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on MEM 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlines | 550 | 82.9% | 92 min | 4.18% | B− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 208 | 81.2% | 62 min | 2.40% | B |
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. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am197 flights95.3%
- 8am–11am86 flights70.2%
- 11am–2pm274 flights80.5%
- 2pm–5pm66 flights71.9%
- 5pm–8pm135 flights80.5%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 95.3% of the time, against 70.2% for the morning 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 274 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 25 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 November, when the on-time rate falls to 66.1%. August is the strongest month at 90.8%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 25 points. July was the busiest month here, with 88 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 89.2% on time and Monday the weakest at 75.9%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 58% of the 11,000 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.
- 58%Late-arriving aircraft
- 27%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
58% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 11,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 17 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 10,583 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 95.3% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.69%, against 1.81% nationally. That is roughly 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 actually costs
6.7% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 875 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 80.2% on time across 759 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.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 758 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.
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 3.69% 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. 727 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MEM to PHL questions
How often is MEM to PHL delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.6% of the 758 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is MEM to PHL compared with the rest of the country?
82.4% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.6%, a difference of 5 points in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MEM to PHL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.3% on time. The 8am–11am window is the weakest at 70.2%, 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 November delays on MEM to PHL?
November is the weakest month at 66.1% on time, compared with 90.8% in August. Across the year that is 25 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 MEM — the return legseparate record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- PSA Airlines on MEM to PHL82.9%
- Republic Airways on MEM to PHL81.2%
- MEM to ATL, a related route87.4%
- ATL to PHL, a related route74.9%
- MEM to ORD, a related route76.0%
- PSA Airlines on-time record82.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record81.2%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. MEM to PHL and PHL to MEM are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed MEM to PHL’s on-time badge on your site
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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.