Route reliability record
PHX→SLC
Phoenix to Salt Lake City
- Flights
- 5,779
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 507 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route lands a B+, 6 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 5,779 PHX to SLC flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,706 at 90.1% on time.
Best time to fly PHX to SLC: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 95.6% of the time and Tuesday flights 88.6%, against 83.0% for the route overall.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 90.1% on time across 1,706 flights.
Key figures
On time
83.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 5,744 completed flights
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.48%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
90.1% on time across 1,706 flights
These figures cover 5,779 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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 SLC
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 90.1% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 76.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,856 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,706 | 90.1% | 81 min | 0.59% | A+ |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 209 | 88.9% | 78 min | 0.48% | A+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 708 | 84.8% | 67 min | 1.27% | B |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 78 | 84.6% | 37 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,222 | 81.6% | 69 min | 0.25% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,856 | 76.0% | 49 min | 0.27% | B+ |
The spread between Delta and Southwest is 14 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 14 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Flight by flight
Flights on PHX to SLC
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 Salt Lake City
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 → SLCPhoenix to Salt Lake City | Delta Air Lines | 89.6% | 90.1% | 0.59% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 1535 06:00 |
| 2. PHX → SLCPhoenix to Salt Lake City | Frontier Airlines | 83.7% | 84.8% | 1.27% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
| 3. PHX → SLCPhoenix to Salt Lake City | SkyWest Airlines | 81.4% | 81.6% | 0.25% | 2pm–5pm, Tue | — |
| 4. PHX → SLCPhoenix to Salt Lake City | Southwest Airlines | 75.8% | 76.0% | 0.27% | 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 27 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am703 flights95.6%
- 8am–11am1,304 flights89.3%
- 11am–2pm907 flights84.3%
- 2pm–5pm956 flights81.9%
- 5pm–8pm1,185 flights77.2%
- 8pm–5am724 flights68.7%
Scale runs 60% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 95.6% of the time, against 68.7% for the overnight window. That is 27 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 1,304 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHX to SLC 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 SLC, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 95.6% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 68.7%, a wide gap of 26.9 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am95.6%
- 8–11am89.3%
- 11am–2pm84.3%
- 2–5pm81.9%
- 5–8pm77.2%
- 8pm–5am68.7%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 5,779 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
June is the worst month at 79.3% on time, 7 points below September, the best at 86.6%. 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 581 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 88.6% on time and Thursday the weakest at 79.7%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 60,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 41%Carrier
- 6%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 60,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 20 to one. The split is drawn from 59,918 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 41%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 25,000 of the 60,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.48%, 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
5.2% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 507 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg runs 83.5% on time across 5,778 flights, within half a point 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 5,779 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 SLC after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: avoid the 8pm–5am departure. It runs 68.7% on time against 95.6% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 27 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 5,744 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHX to SLC questions
How often is PHX to SLC delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.0% of the 5,779 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on PHX to SLC?
Delta Air Lines leads at 90.1% on time across 1,706 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 76.0%, a gap of 14 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 SLC?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.6% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 68.7%, 27 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 June delays on PHX to SLC?
June is the weakest month at 79.3% on time, compared with 86.6% in September. Across the year that is 7 points between the best and worst months. The seasonal swing is modest enough that it should not decide when you travel.
Related
Where to go next
- SLC to PHX — the return legseparate record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Salt Lake City International (SLC) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on PHX to SLC90.1%
- American Airlines on PHX to SLC88.9%
- Frontier Airlines on PHX to SLC84.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on PHX to SLC81.6%
- Southwest Airlines on PHX to SLC76.0%
- PHX to DEN, a related route76.7%
- DEN to SLC, a related route78.2%
- PHX to LAX, a related route82.1%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record90.1%
- American Airlines on-time record88.9%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record84.8%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PHX to SLC and SLC 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.