Carrier route record
ASSEA→BNA
Alaska Airlines · Seattle to Nashville
- Flights
- 843
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 57%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Alaska Airlines.
Alaska on SEA to BNA lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.6%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 45 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 843 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Alaska on SEA to BNA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 833 completed flights
Avg delay
43 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.07%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
78.6%
Every carrier on SEA to BNA, 1,479 flights
These figures cover 843 flights between July 2025 and June 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.
Carrier by carrier
Alaska against every carrier on SEA to BNA
Alaska flew 843 of the 1,479 flights on SEA to BNA, most of the route. Its 77.0% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 78.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 84.6% to Southwest at 64.8%. One 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 511 | 84.6% | 61 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines (this page) | 843 | 77.0% | 43 min | 1.07% | B |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 125 | 64.8% | 39 min | 0.00% | D+ |
Flight by flight
Alaska flight numbers on SEA to BNA
Departure window
When Alaska runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 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–11am329 flights82.0%
- 11am–2pm31 flights58.1%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm281 flights68.8%
- 8pm–5am202 flights82.9%
Scale runs 50% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 58.1% on time against 82.9% for 8pm–5am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 329 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Alaska on SEA to BNA through the year
August is the worst month at 52.9% on time, 37 points below March, the best at 89.8%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 92 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.8% on time and Tuesday the weakest at 73.7%. 11 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Alaska runs late on this route
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 8,306 reported delay minutes.
- 38%Carrier
- 31%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 38%, 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 3,131 of the 8,306 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 8,306 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.07% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.12%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 3.8% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.
At 1,978 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 70.3% on time across 843 flights, 7 points below 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 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 843 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 Alaska on SEA to BNA
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 843 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 77.0% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 833 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- SEA to BNA, every carrier
- Alaska on BNA to SEA, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on SEA to BNA84.6%
- Southwest Airlines on SEA to BNA64.8%
- Alaska Airlines network-wide record
- Seattle-Tacoma International (SEA) delay statistics
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
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.