Carrier route record

AAPHL→PWM

American Airlines · Philadelphia to Portland

Flights: 528
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 72%
Carriers: 3

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.

American on PHL to PWM 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 77.6%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 528 flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate American on PHL to PWM from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

75.6%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 517 completed flights

Avg delay

83 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.70%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

75.8%

Every carrier on PHL to PWM, 729 flights

These figures cover 528 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.8% 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 PHL to PWM

American flew 528 of the 729 flights on PHL to PWM, most of the route. Its 75.6% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 75.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 100.0% to American at 75.6%. Two 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.

On-time performance by carrier on PHL to PWM
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Republic Airwaysthin sample	1	100.0%	—	0.00%	A+
PSA Airlinesthin sample	200	76.1%	110 min	8.00%	B−
American Airlines (this page)	528	75.6%	83 min	1.70%	B

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 20 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am—
8am–11am61 flights90.2%
11am–2pm97 flights83.5%
2pm–5pm73 flights72.2%
5pm–8pm109 flights69.8%
8pm–5am188 flights71.3%

Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 90.2% of the time, against 69.8% for the evening window. That is 20 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 188 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

American on PHL to PWM through the year

Jul–Sep 2025310 flights74.3%
Oct–Dec 202593 flights70.7%
Apr–Jun 2026125 flights82.6%

Scale runs 60% to 90%. 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 75.6% on time across 528 flights.

American on PHL to PWM did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 82.6% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 70.7%, a swing of 12 points on roughly 176 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, Tuesday is the strongest day at 88.2% on time and Thursday the weakest at 61.2%. 27 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. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 10,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
50%
Carrier
31%
National Airspace System
14%
Extreme weather
4%

50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 10,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 10,434 reported delay minutes.

The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 90.2% on time here.

Cancellations sit at 1.70% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.38%.

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. 10.8% 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.

At 364 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 8am–11am window matters as much as it does.

The return leg runs 77.1% on time across 530 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. 528 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 PHL to PWM

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 528 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 75.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 517 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

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.

Key figures