Carrier route record
NKPHL→MIA
Spirit Airlines · Philadelphia to Miami
- Flights
- 235
- 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 PHL to MIA lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 235 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Spirit on PHL to MIA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
76.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 227 completed flights
Avg delay
55 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.98%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
77.2%
Every carrier on PHL to MIA, 3,158 flights
These figures cover 235 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.4% 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 PHL to MIA
Spirit flew 235 of the 3,158 flights on PHL to MIA, about 7% of it. Its 76.2% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 77.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 78.8% to Frontier at 66.6%. 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 | 78.8% | 87 min | 1.99% | B |
| Spirit Airlines (this page)thin sample | 235 | 76.2% | 55 min | 2.98% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 354 | 66.6% | 83 min | 1.98% | C |
Departure window
When Spirit runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 235 flights.
- 5am–8am18 flights—
- 8am–11am104 flights77.8%
- 11am–2pm30 flights76.7%
- 2pm–5pm65 flights71.9%
- 5pm–8pm14 flights—
- 8pm–5am4 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The early departures do better, though not dramatically: 77.8% on time for the 8am–11am window against 71.9% for 2pm–5pm. Worth taking if the schedule allows, not worth an extra connection. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 104 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Spirit on PHL to MIA through the year
- Jul–Sep 202565 flights70.8%
- Oct–Dec 202567 flights81.2%
- Jan–Mar 202680 flights78.7%
- Apr–Jun 202623 flights—
Scale runs 60% 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 76.2% on time across 235 flights.
Spirit on PHL to MIA did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Oct–Dec 2025 at 81.2% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2025 at 70.8%, a swing of 10 points on roughly 78 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, Friday is the strongest day at 85.7% on time and Monday the weakest at 68.3%. 17 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 57% of the 2,969 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.
- 57%National Airspace System
- 23%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%Carrier
- 2%Extreme weather
- 1%Security
57% 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 1,691 minutes out of 2,969, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 2,969 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.98%, against 1.81% nationally. That is roughly 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 costs
8.4% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
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 73.9% on time across 236 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. 235 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 PHL to MIA
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 2.98% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 227 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- PHL to MIA, every carrier
- Spirit on MIA to PHL, the return leg
- American Airlines on PHL to MIA78.8%
- Frontier Airlines on PHL to MIA66.6%
- Spirit Airlines network-wide record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
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.