Carrier route record
AAMSP→PHL
American Airlines · Minneapolis to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 214
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 11%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 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 77.6%. The late ones land about 2.5 hours behind schedule. That rests on 214 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Delta Air Lines, flew 1,211 at 81.9% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate American on MSP 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
73.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 210 completed flights
Avg delay
151 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.40%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
79.9%
Every carrier on MSP to PHL, 2,022 flights
These figures cover 214 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 16.2% 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
American against every carrier on MSP to PHL
American flew 214 of the 2,022 flights on MSP to PHL, about 11% of it. Its 73.8% on time is 6 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 79.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 81.9% to American at 73.8%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,211 | 81.9% | 74 min | 2.23% | B |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 57 | 78.9% | 70 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| PSA Airlines | 520 | 78.3% | 119 min | 6.92% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 20 | 75.0% | 55 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 214 | 73.8% | 151 min | 1.40% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.9% 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.
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 22 points, against 4 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am82 flights86.4%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm4 flights—
- 2pm–5pm127 flights64.5%
- 5pm–8pm1 flights—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 86.4% of the time, against 64.5% for the afternoon window. That is 22 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 127 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on MSP to PHL through the year
- Jul–Sep 2025164 flights72.0%
- Oct–Dec 202513 flights—
- Apr–Jun 202637 flights75.0%
Scale runs 65% 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 73.8% on time across 214 flights.
Split by quarter, American on MSP to PHL logged 164 flights in Jul–Sep 2025, 13 flights in Oct–Dec 2025 and 37 flights in Apr–Jun 2026. Fewer than three of those quarters carried the 30 completed flights this site needs before printing a rate, so the 73.8% annual figure is the one to use.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 76.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 62.9%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 52% of the 8,306 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.
- 52%Carrier
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 52%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 4,321 of the 8,306 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 8,306 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 86.4% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.40% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.47%.
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. 16.2% 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 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. 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 65.6% on time across 213 flights, 8 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 8 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 214 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. 214 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 73.8% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 210 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 PHL81.9%
- PSA Airlines on MSP to PHL78.3%
- 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 7.04 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.