Route reliability record
PHX→JFK
Phoenix to New York
- Flights
- 3,096
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 2,153 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.2% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 3,096 PHX to JFK flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 919 at 85.1% on time.
Best time to fly PHX to JFK: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.4% of the time and Saturday flights 83.8%, against 78.4% for the route overall.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 85.1% on time across 919 flights.
Key figures
On time
78.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,969 completed flights
Avg delay
80 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.23%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
85.1% on time across 919 flights
These figures cover 3,096 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.3% 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 PHX to JFK
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 85.1% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 72.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 531 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 919 | 85.1% | 86 min | 3.48% | A− |
| American Airlines | 1,646 | 76.6% | 76 min | 2.55% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 531 | 72.3% | 85 min | 4.90% | C− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 4.9% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Flights on PHX to JFK
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Phoenix to New York
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 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PHX → JFKPhoenix to New York | Delta Air Lines | 82.1% | 85.1% | 3.48% | 5am–8am, Sat | DL 546 06:00 |
| 2. PHX → EWRPhoenix to Newark | United Airlines | 80.6% | 82.2% | 1.95% | 5am–8am, Fri | — |
| 3. PHX → JFKPhoenix to New York | American Airlines | 74.6% | 76.6% | 2.55% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 4. PHX → EWRPhoenix to Newark | American Airlines | 74.6% | 76.7% | 2.69% | 8pm–5am, Sat | AA 1967 15:15 |
| 5. PHX → JFKPhoenix to New York | JetBlue Airways | 68.8% | 72.3% | 4.90% | 8pm–5am, 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 20 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am619 flights90.4%
- 8am–11am377 flights77.4%
- 11am–2pm703 flights71.0%
- 2pm–5pm468 flights70.2%
- 5pm–8pm16 flights—
- 8pm–5am913 flights80.5%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.4% of the time, against 70.2% for the afternoon 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 913 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHX to JFK 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 JFK, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.4% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 70.2%, a wide gap of 20.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.4%
- 8–11am77.4%
- 11am–2pm71.0%
- 2–5pm70.2%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am80.5%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 24 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 66.0% on time, 24 points below April, the best at 89.6%. 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 289 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 83.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.6%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 51,000 reported delay minutes.
- 39%Carrier
- 34%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 39%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 20,000 of the 51,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 51,176 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 90.4% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.23%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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
8.3% 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 2,153 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 76.2% on time across 3,097 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 3,096 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 JFK after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.23% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 2,969 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHX to JFK questions
How often is PHX to JFK 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 21.6% of the 3,096 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 JFK?
Delta Air Lines leads at 85.1% on time across 919 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 72.3%, a gap of 13 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 JFK?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.4% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 70.2%, 20 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 JFK?
August is the weakest month at 66.0% on time, compared with 89.6% in April. Across the year that is 24 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
- JFK to PHX — the return legseparate record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on PHX to JFK85.1%
- American Airlines on PHX to JFK76.6%
- JetBlue Airways on PHX to JFK72.3%
- PHX to DEN, a related route76.7%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- PHX to LAX, a related route82.1%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record85.1%
- American Airlines on-time record76.6%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record72.3%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PHX to JFK and JFK 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.