Route reliability record
PHX→FAT
Phoenix to Fresno
- Flights
- 1,476
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 493 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B+, 2 points 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 a little over an hour on average. That rests on 1,476 PHX to FAT flights, of which American Airlines flew 794 at 78.9% on time.
Best time to fly PHX to FAT: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.6% of the time and Tuesday flights 87.8%, against 78.9% 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
78.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,467 completed flights
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.47%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
78.9% on time across 794 flights
These figures cover 1,476 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 6 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 FAT
The two carriers here are closely matched: 3 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 147 | 87.8% | 56 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 794 | 78.9% | 80 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 535 | 76.3% | 77 min | 0.19% | B+ |
No carrier stands out. American tops the table at 78.9%, 3 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Phoenix to Fresno
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PHX → FATPhoenix to Fresno | American Airlines | 78.3% | 78.9% | 0.76% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 2. PHX → FATPhoenix to Fresno | SkyWest Airlines | 76.2% | 76.3% | 0.19% | 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 26 points, against 3 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am119 flights91.6%
- 8am–11am340 flights83.5%
- 11am–2pm126 flights84.0%
- 2pm–5pm316 flights83.4%
- 5pm–8pm325 flights73.4%
- 8pm–5am250 flights65.2%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.6% of the time, against 65.2% for the overnight window. That is 26 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 340 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHX to FAT 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 FAT, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.6% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 65.2%, a wide gap of 26.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.6%
- 8–11am83.5%
- 11am–2pm84.0%
- 2–5pm83.4%
- 5–8pm73.4%
- 8pm–5am65.2%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 13 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.
August is the worst month at 72.3% on time, 13 points below May, the best at 85.7%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 149 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 87.8% on time and Friday the weakest at 72.9%, a spread of 15 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 24,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 45%Carrier
- 8%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 24,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 18 to one. The split is drawn from 23,910 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 45%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 11,000 of the 24,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.47%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.6% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 493 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 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 81.1% on time across 1,476 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 1,476 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 FAT 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 85.7% on time and August 72.3%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 1,467 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHX to FAT questions
How often is PHX to FAT 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 21.1% of the 1,476 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on PHX to FAT?
American Airlines leads at 78.9% on time across 794 flights. SkyWest Airlines is at the other end on 76.3%, a gap of 3 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on PHX to FAT?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.6% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 65.2%, 26 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 August delays on PHX to FAT?
August is the weakest month at 72.3% on time, compared with 85.7% in May. Across the year that is 13 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
- FAT to PHX — the return legseparate record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Envoy Air on PHX to FAT87.8%
- American Airlines on PHX to FAT78.9%
- SkyWest Airlines on PHX to FAT76.3%
- PHX to DEN, a related route76.7%
- SAN to FAT, a related route77.8%
- PHX to LAX, a related route82.1%
- Envoy Air on-time record87.8%
- American Airlines on-time record78.9%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record76.3%
- 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 FAT and FAT 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.