Carrier route record

AAPHL→SLC

American Airlines · Philadelphia to Salt Lake City

Flights: 213
Period: September 2025 to August 2026
Share of route: 26%
Carriers: 2

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

American on PHL to SLC sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. 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 about 2.2 hours behind schedule. That rests on 213 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on PHL to SLC from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

74.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 203 completed flights

Avg delay

132 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

4.23%

National rate is 1.89%

Whole route

78.4%

Every carrier on PHL to SLC, 804 flights

These figures cover 213 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.

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Carrier by carrier

American against every carrier on PHL to SLC

American flew 213 of the 804 flights on PHL to SLC, about 26% of it. Its 74.9% on time is 4 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 78.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 79.6% to American at 74.9%.

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 SLC
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Lines	591	79.6%	66 min	1.18%	B
American Airlines (this page)thin sample	213	74.9%	132 min	4.23%	C−

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.

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 13 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.

5am–8am—
8am–11am—
11am–2pm—
2pm–5pm3 flights—
5pm–8pm167 flights77.5%
8pm–5am43 flights65.0%

Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 5pm–8pm window is the strongest at 77.5% on time. The full set of windows spans 13 points.

Across the year

American on PHL to SLC through the year

Jul–Sep 20251 flights—
Oct–Dec 202514 flights—
Jan–Mar 202652 flights79.2%
Apr–Jun 202691 flights80.0%
Jul–Sep 202655 flights58.8%

Scale runs 50% 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 74.9% on time across 213 flights.

American on PHL to SLC did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 80.0% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 58.8%, a swing of 21 points on roughly 71 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, Saturday is the strongest day at 80.6% on time and Friday the weakest at 71.0%, a spread of 10 points.

Arrival by arrival

How late American on PHL to SLC runs when it is late

American on PHL to SLC often beats the schedule: 76 of 203 completed flights, 37%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 51 late arrivals split 14 under half an hour, 16 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 21 an hour or more.

15+ min early76 flights37.4%
Within 15 min76 flights37.4%
15–29 min late14 flights6.9%
30–59 min late16 flights7.9%
1–2 hours late10 flights4.9%
2+ hours late11 flights5.4%

Scale runs 0% to 100%.

Share of 203 completed flights by arrival against schedule.

14 of 52 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 27% of them. In the other direction, 13 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at SLC.

The worst days

Worst days for American on PHL to SLC

The latest arrival of the period was on 14 June 2026, 14 hours 26 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.

The latest arrivals of American on PHL to SLC in the period
Date	Arrived late by	Largest filed cause
14 June 2026	14 hours 26 minutes	Carrier
28 July 2026	13 hours 55 minutes	Extreme weather
9 July 2026	13 hours 41 minutes	Carrier
10 June 2026	12 hours 48 minutes	Carrier
2 August 2026	7 hours 2 minutes	Carrier

Delay causes

Why American runs late on this route

Carrier accounts for 59% of the 6,749 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.

Carrier
59%
Extreme weather
16%
Late-arriving aircraft
15%
National Airspace System
10%

Extreme weather accounts for 16% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 2.7 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 6,749 reported delay minutes.

The largest share of delay minutes, 59%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 3,998 of the 6,749 delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations run at 4.23%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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

10.3% 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 1,927 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 86.7% on time across 214 flights, 12 points above 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 12 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 213 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 SLC

Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.23% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 2.2 hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5pm–8pm departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 203 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated 22 October 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures