Route reliability record
PHL→PBI
Philadelphia to West Palm Beach
- Flights
- 1,451
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 951 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 1,451 PHL to PBI flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly PHL to PBI: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.8% of the time and Wednesday flights 83.9%, against 75.3% 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
75.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,408 completed flights
Avg delay
73 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.62%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
78.0% on time across 1,178 flights
These figures cover 1,451 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.2% 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 PHL to PBI
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 | 1,178 | 78.0% | 75 min | 2.29% | B |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 14 | 69.2% | 56 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 259 | 62.9% | 69 min | 4.25% | D− |
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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Philadelphia to West Palm Beach
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PHL → PBIPhiladelphia to West Palm Beach | American Airlines | 76.2% | 78.0% | 2.29% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 2. PHL → FLLPhiladelphia to Fort Lauderdale | American Airlines | 73.4% | 75.4% | 2.70% | 8am–11am, Wed | AA 1864 19:00 |
| 3. PHL → FLLPhiladelphia to Fort Lauderdale | Frontier Airlines | 70.7% | 72.4% | 2.28% | 5am–8am, Wed | F9 2609 06:00 |
| 4. PHL → FLLPhiladelphia to Fort Lauderdale | JetBlue Airways | 68.6% | 70.9% | 3.29% | 8am–11am, Wed | B6 375 07:00 |
| 5. PHL → FLLPhiladelphia to Fort Lauderdale | Spirit Airlines | 65.7% | 69.9% | 5.95% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
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 22 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am192 flights88.8%
- 8am–11am358 flights78.2%
- 11am–2pm240 flights74.0%
- 2pm–5pm252 flights67.2%
- 5pm–8pm293 flights73.4%
- 8pm–5am116 flights68.2%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.8% of the time, against 67.2% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 358 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHL to PBI 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 PHL to PBI, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.8% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 67.2%, a wide gap of 21.6 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.8%
- 8–11am78.2%
- 11am–2pm74.0%
- 2–5pm67.2%
- 5–8pm73.4%
- 8pm–5am68.2%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 25 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 63.6% on time, 25 points below May, the best at 89.1%. 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. April was the busiest month here, with 163 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.9% on time and Saturday the weakest at 69.7%, a spread of 14 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 25,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 23%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 25,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 19 to one. The split is drawn from 25,425 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 88.8% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.62%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 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
10.2% 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 951 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 78.0% on time across 1,450 flights, within 3 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,451 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in PBI after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. May runs 89.1% on time and July 63.6%, a swing of 25 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,408 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHL to PBI questions
How often is PHL to PBI delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.7% of the 1,451 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is PHL to PBI compared with the rest of the country?
75.3% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points against it. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on PHL to PBI?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.8% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 67.2%, 22 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 PHL to PBI?
July is the weakest month at 63.6% on time, compared with 89.1% in May. Across the year that is 25 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
- PBI to PHL — the return legseparate record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Palm Beach International (PBI) delay statistics
- American Airlines on PHL to PBI78.0%
- Frontier Airlines on PHL to PBI62.9%
- PHL to ATL, a related route78.0%
- ATL to PBI, a related route75.8%
- PHL to MCO, a related route72.4%
- American Airlines on-time record78.0%
- Republic Airways on-time record69.2%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record62.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PHL to PBI and PBI to PHL 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.