Route reliability record
RDU→PHL
Raleigh to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 2,668
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 337 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.2% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four 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 2,668 RDU to PHL flights, of which American Airlines flew 1,070 at 79.1% on time.
Best time to fly RDU to PHL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.3% of the time and Tuesday flights 80.3%, against 75.3% for the route overall.
American Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 79.1% on time across 1,070 flights.
Key figures
On time
75.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,553 completed flights
Avg delay
94 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.16%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
79.1% on time across 1,070 flights
These figures cover 2,668 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.7% 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 RDU to PHL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 79.1% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 69.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 766 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 221 | 84.4% | 69 min | 3.62% | B− |
| American Airlines | 1,070 | 79.1% | 106 min | 2.24% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 611 | 72.8% | 87 min | 4.75% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 766 | 69.1% | 91 min | 6.53% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.5% 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 RDU to PHL
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 Raleigh to Philadelphia
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. RDU → PHLRaleigh to Philadelphia | American Airlines | 77.3% | 79.1% | 2.24% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 2. RDU → PHLRaleigh to Philadelphia | Frontier Airlines | 69.3% | 72.8% | 4.75% | 8am–11am, Tue | F9 2060 08:31 |
| 3. RDU → PHLRaleigh to Philadelphia | PSA Airlines | 64.6% | 69.1% | 6.53% | 5am–8am, Sun | — |
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 10 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am368 flights91.3%
- 8am–11am568 flights84.5%
- 11am–2pm541 flights74.1%
- 2pm–5pm461 flights65.4%
- 5pm–8pm567 flights65.0%
- 8pm–5am163 flights72.5%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.3% of the time, against 65.0% for the evening 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 568 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter RDU to PHL 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 RDU to PHL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.3% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 65.0%, a wide gap of 26.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.3%
- 8–11am84.5%
- 11am–2pm74.1%
- 2–5pm65.4%
- 5–8pm65.0%
- 8pm–5am72.5%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 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.
December is the weak month at 63.7% on time, against 83.3% in April. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. August was the busiest month here, with 265 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.3% on time and Monday the weakest at 71.6%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 59% of the 59,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 59%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
59% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 59,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 to one. The split is drawn from 59,142 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 91.3% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.16%, 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 actually costs
10.7% 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 337 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 75.0% on time across 2,665 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 2,668 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 PHL after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.16% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 2,553 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
RDU to PHL questions
How often is RDU to PHL delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.7% of the 2,668 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on RDU to PHL?
American Airlines leads at 79.1% on time across 1,070 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 69.1%, a gap of 10 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 RDU to PHL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.3% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 65.0%, 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 December delays on RDU to PHL?
December is the weakest month at 63.7% on time, compared with 83.3% in April. Across the year that is 20 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
- PHL to RDU — the return legseparate record
- Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on RDU to PHL84.4%
- American Airlines on RDU to PHL79.1%
- Frontier Airlines on RDU to PHL72.8%
- PSA Airlines on RDU to PHL69.1%
- RDU to ATL, a related route86.5%
- ATL to PHL, a related route74.6%
- RDU to ORD, a related route74.3%
- Republic Airways on-time record84.4%
- American Airlines on-time record79.1%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record72.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. RDU to PHL and PHL to RDU 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.