Route reliability record
PHX→BWI
Phoenix to Baltimore
- Flights
- 1,220
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,999 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 45 minutes on average. That rests on 1,220 PHX to BWI flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes early.
Best time to fly PHX to BWI: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.1% of the time and Saturday flights 86.7%, against 78.5% 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
78.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,205 completed flights
Avg delay
45 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.90%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Southwest
78.5% on time across 1,220 flights
These figures cover 1,220 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 2 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on PHX to BWI
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 1,220 | 78.5% | 45 min | 0.90% | B+ |
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Phoenix to Baltimore
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. 2 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PHX → IADPhoenix to Washington | United Airlines | 90.2% | 90.8% | 0.71% | 5am–8am, Wed | UA 1873 08:50 |
| 2. PHX → DCAPhoenix to Washington | American Airlines | 80.8% | 82.0% | 1.47% | 8pm–5am, Sat | — |
| 3. PHX → BWIPhoenix to Baltimore | Southwest Airlines | 77.8% | 78.5% | 0.90% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
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 37 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am318 flights92.1%
- 8am–11am182 flights76.1%
- 11am–2pm201 flights70.9%
- 2pm–5pm164 flights54.7%
- 5pm–8pm21 flights—
- 8pm–5am334 flights85.5%
Scale runs 45% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.1% of the time, against 54.7% for the afternoon window. That is 37 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 334 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHX to BWI 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 PHX to BWI, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.1% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 54.7%, a wide gap of 37.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.1%
- 8–11am76.1%
- 11am–2pm70.9%
- 2–5pm54.7%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am85.5%
best all US flightsScale 45% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 27 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 61.0% on time, 27 points below October, the best at 88.1%. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 123 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 86.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.7%, a spread of 19 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 12,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 43%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 12,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 44 to one. The split is drawn from 11,569 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,933 of the 12,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 0.90% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.33%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.6% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
At 1,999 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 runs 76.4% on time across 1,218 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.
The sample behind these figures is 1,220 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 BWI 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. October runs 88.1% on time and July 61.0%, a swing of 27 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,205 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHX to BWI questions
How often is PHX to BWI delayed?
About 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 21.5% of the 1,220 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 45 minutes on average.
How reliable is PHX to BWI compared with the rest of the country?
78.5% 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 PHX to BWI?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.1% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 54.7%, 37 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 PHX to BWI?
July is the weakest month at 61.0% on time, compared with 88.1% in October. Across the year that is 27 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
- BWI to PHX — the return legseparate record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI) delay statistics
- PHX to DEN, a related route76.7%
- ATL to BWI, a related route75.2%
- PHX to LAX, a related route82.1%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record78.5%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. PHX to BWI and BWI to PHX 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.