Carrier route record
AASAV→PHL
American Airlines · Savannah to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 215
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 22%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on SAV to PHL sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about 3.0 hours behind schedule. That rests on 215 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so American on SAV to PHL runs 5 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 50 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
72.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 212 completed flights
Avg delay
181 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.40%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
81.4%
Every carrier on SAV to PHL, 975 flights
These figures cover 215 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on SAV to PHL
American flew 215 of the 975 flights on SAV to PHL, about 22% of it. Its 72.6% on time is 9 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 81.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from PSA at 84.7% to Frontier at 71.0%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlines | 704 | 84.7% | 115 min | 3.55% | B− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 24 | 79.2% | 60 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 215 | 72.6% | 181 min | 1.40% | C |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 32 | 71.0% | 79 min | 3.12% | C− |
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am24 flights—
- 11am–2pm55 flights85.5%
- 2pm–5pm16 flights—
- 5pm–8pm120 flights64.1%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 64.1% on time, against 85.5% for the 11am–2pm slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 120 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on SAV to PHL through the year
- Jul–Sep 202599 flights71.1%
- Oct–Dec 202531 flights71.0%
- Apr–Jun 202685 flights75.0%
Scale runs 65% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 72.6% on time across 215 flights.
Quarter by quarter American on SAV to PHL held fairly steady: 71.1% in Jul–Sep 2025, 71.0% in Oct–Dec 2025 and 75.0% in Apr–Jun 2026. A spread of 4 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 83.3% on time and Thursday the weakest at 60.0%. 23 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 52% of the 11,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 52%Carrier
- 38%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%Extreme weather
- 3%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
38% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 11,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 10,511 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 52%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 5,505 of the 11,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.40% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 13.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 630 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 76.2% on time across 215 flights, 4 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 4 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 215 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking American on SAV to PHL
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 215 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 72.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 212 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- SAV to PHL, every carrier
- American on PHL to SAV, the return leg
- PSA Airlines on SAV to PHL84.7%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.