Carrier route record
NKMIA→PHL
Spirit Airlines · Miami to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 236
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 7%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Spirit Airlines.
Spirit on MIA to PHL sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 236 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Spirit on MIA to PHL from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
73.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 226 completed flights
Avg delay
66 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.24%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
75.8%
Every carrier on MIA to PHL, 3,158 flights
These figures cover 236 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.6% 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 MIA to PHL
Spirit flew 236 of the 3,158 flights on MIA to PHL, about 7% of it. Its 73.9% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 75.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 76.4% to Frontier at 72.5%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 2,569 | 76.4% | 79 min | 2.10% | B |
| Spirit Airlines (this page)thin sample | 236 | 73.9% | 66 min | 4.24% | C− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 353 | 72.5% | 91 min | 2.27% | 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 29 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–8am53 flights96.2%
- 8am–11am8 flights—
- 11am–2pm38 flights73.5%
- 2pm–5pm89 flights67.4%
- 5pm–8pm29 flights—
- 8pm–5am19 flights—
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 96.2% of the time, against 67.4% for the afternoon window. That is 29 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 89 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Spirit on MIA to PHL through the year
- Jul–Sep 202565 flights78.5%
- Oct–Dec 202568 flights78.5%
- Jan–Mar 202680 flights65.8%
- Apr–Jun 202623 flights—
Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 73.9% on time across 236 flights.
Spirit on MIA to PHL did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 78.5% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 65.8%, a swing of 13 points on roughly 79 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 76.9% on time and Saturday the weakest at 66.7%. 10 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. National Airspace System accounts for 51% of the 3,877 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.
- 51%National Airspace System
- 24%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%Carrier
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
51% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 1,988 minutes out of 3,877, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 3,877 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.24%, 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. 10.6% 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 1,013 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 76.2% on time across 235 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. 236 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 MIA to PHL
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.24% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 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. 226 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MIA to PHL, every carrier
- Spirit on PHL to MIA, the return leg
- American Airlines on MIA to PHL76.4%
- Frontier Airlines on MIA to PHL72.5%
- Spirit Airlines network-wide record
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) 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.