Route reliability record
ORF→PHL
Norfolk to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 854
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 212 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.4% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about 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 854 ORF to PHL flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
Best time to fly ORF to PHL: a 11am–2pm departure, ideally on a Thursday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.5% of the time and Thursday flights 83.9%, against 78.2% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 825 completed flights
Avg delay
122 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.40%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
79.3% on time across 757 flights
These figures cover 854 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on ORF 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 | 757 | 79.3% | 124 min | 2.91% | B |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 97 | 68.9% | 110 min | 7.22% | C− |
Flight by flight
Flights on ORF to PHL
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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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 17 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am297 flights81.8%
- 8am–11am282 flights77.5%
- 11am–2pm72 flights87.5%
- 2pm–5pm30 flights—
- 5pm–8pm173 flights70.3%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 87.5% on time, ahead of 5pm–8pm at 70.3%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 297 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ORF to PHL by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On ORF to PHL, the best departure window is 11am–2pm at 87.5% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 70.3%, a wide gap of 17.2 points. All US flights leaving 11am–2pm ran 78.3%.
- 5–8am81.8%
- 8–11am77.5%
- 11am–2pm87.5%
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm70.3%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 28 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.
July is the worst month at 61.4% on time, 28 points below September, the best at 89.2%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. September was the busiest month here, with 102 flights.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 83.9% on time and Monday the weakest at 69.9%, a spread of 14 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 46% of the 22,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Carrier
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 8%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
41% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 22,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. The split is drawn from 21,874 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 46%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 10,000 of the 22,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 3.40%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about 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 actually costs
11.5% 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.
At 212 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 11am–2pm window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 72.0% on time across 854 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 854 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 3.40% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 11am–2pm departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 825 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ORF to PHL questions
How often is ORF to PHL delayed?
Roughly one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.8% of the 854 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is ORF to PHL compared with the rest of the country?
78.2% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about a point in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ORF to PHL?
The 11am–2pm departure window is the strongest at 87.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 70.3%, 17 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 July delays on ORF to PHL?
July is the weakest month at 61.4% on time, compared with 89.2% in September. Across the year that is 28 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 ORF — the return legseparate record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- ORF to ATL, a related route85.1%
- ATL to PHL, a related route74.6%
- ORF to CLT, a related route81.3%
- PSA Airlines on-time record79.3%
- Republic Airways on-time record68.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. ORF to PHL and PHL to ORF are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.