Carrier route record
AAMSP→PHL
American Airlines · Minneapolis to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 148
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 7%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on MSP 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 77.3%. The late ones land about 2.3 hours behind schedule. That rests on 148 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Delta Air Lines, flew 1,217 at 81.3% on time.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so American on MSP to PHL runs 4 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 42 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
73.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 145 completed flights
Avg delay
136 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.35%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
79.4%
Every carrier on MSP to PHL, 2,085 flights
These figures cover 148 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 14.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on MSP to PHL
American flew 148 of the 2,085 flights on MSP to PHL, about 7% of it. Its 73.1% on time is 6 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 79.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 81.5% to American at 73.1%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The two carriers here are closely matched: 4 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 83 | 81.5% | 79 min | 2.41% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,217 | 81.3% | 75 min | 2.88% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 617 | 77.1% | 113 min | 6.97% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 20 | 75.0% | 55 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 148 | 73.1% | 136 min | 1.35% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 7.0% 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.
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 American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 23 points, against 4 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am31 flights90.3%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm4 flights—
- 2pm–5pm112 flights67.0%
- 5pm–8pm1 flights—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.3% of the time, against 67.0% for the afternoon window. That is 23 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 112 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on MSP to PHL through the year
- Jul–Sep 202555 flights76.4%
- Oct–Dec 202513 flights—
- Apr–Jun 202637 flights75.0%
- Jul–Sep 202643 flights61.0%
Scale runs 55% to 80%. 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 73.1% on time across 148 flights.
American on MSP to PHL did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 76.4% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 61.0%, a swing of 15 points on roughly 49 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.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on MSP to PHL runs when it is late
American on MSP to PHL often beats the schedule: 61 of 145 completed flights, 42%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. When American on MSP to PHL is late it tends to be very late: 21 of its 39 late arrivals were an hour or more behind, and 12 were two hours or more.
- 15+ min early61 flights42.1%
- Within 15 min45 flights31.0%
- 15–29 min late9 flights6.2%
- 30–59 min late9 flights6.2%
- 1–2 hours late9 flights6.2%
- 2+ hours late12 flights8.3%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 145 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
10 of 45 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 22% of them. 4 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on MSP to PHL
The latest arrival of the period was on 5 September 2025, 28 hours 15 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). On four of the five worst days the largest share was filed as a late-arriving aircraft.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2025 | 28 hours 15 minutes | Carrier |
| 23 June 2026 | 6 hours 1 minute | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 6 August 2026 | 5 hours 44 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 5 June 2026 | 4 hours 5 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 9 July 2026 | 3 hours 48 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 5,285 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 42%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 5,285 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. The split is drawn from 5,285 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 42%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,200 of the 5,285 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.35% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.68%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
14.5% 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 981 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 72.2% on time across 147 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. 148 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 American on MSP to PHL
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 148 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 73.1% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 145 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MSP to PHL, every carrier
- American on PHL to MSP, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on MSP to PHL81.3%
- PSA Airlines on MSP to PHL77.1%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- 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.