Carrier route record
AASJU→PHL
American Airlines · San Juan to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 763
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 38%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on SJU to PHL lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 763 flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on SJU to PHL from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
80.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 741 completed flights
Avg delay
100 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.62%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
71.9%
Every carrier on SJU to PHL, 1,992 flights
These figures cover 763 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 11 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
American against every carrier on SJU to PHL
American flew 763 of the 1,992 flights on SJU to PHL, about 38% of it. Its 80.3% on time is 8 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 71.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from JetBlue at 90.7% to Spirit at 60.9%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 159 | 90.7% | 65 min | 4.40% | A− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 763 | 80.3% | 100 min | 2.62% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 916 | 63.3% | 81 min | 3.17% | D− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 154 | 60.9% | 71 min | 10.39% | D− |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
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 17 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am313 flights85.9%
- 8am–11am16 flights—
- 11am–2pm113 flights83.2%
- 2pm–5pm245 flights75.6%
- 5pm–8pm55 flights68.6%
- 8pm–5am21 flights—
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 85.9% of the time, against 68.6% for the evening window. That is 17 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 313 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on SJU to PHL through the year
December is the weak month at 62.0% on time, against 92.1% 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. April was the busiest month here, with 89 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.4%, a spread of 15 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on SJU to PHL runs when it is late
American on SJU to PHL often beats the schedule: 313 of 741 completed flights, 42%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 146 late arrivals split 52 under half an hour, 49 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 45 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early313 flights42.2%
- Within 15 min282 flights38.1%
- 15–29 min late52 flights7.0%
- 30–59 min late49 flights6.6%
- 1–2 hours late20 flights2.7%
- 2+ hours late25 flights3.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 741 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
41 of 156 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 26% of them. 31 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on SJU to PHL
The latest arrival of the period was on 3 January 2026, 36 hours 17 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 3 January 2026 | 36 hours 17 minutes | Carrier |
| 26 December 2025 | 17 hours 4 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 1 March 2026 | 16 hours 41 minutes | Carrier |
| 29 May 2026 | 12 hours 49 minutes | Carrier |
| 5 January 2026 | 12 hours 46 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 55% of the 15,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 55%Carrier
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 12%National Airspace System
- 0%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 55%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 7,994 of the 15,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 14,619 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 85.9% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.62%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 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 costs
6.1% 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 close to two hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,576 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 71.4% on time across 763 flights, 9 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 9 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 763 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 SJU to PHL
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 763 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 80.3% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 741 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- SJU to PHL, every carrier
- American on PHL to SJU, the return leg
- JetBlue Airways on SJU to PHL90.7%
- Frontier Airlines on SJU to PHL63.3%
- Spirit Airlines on SJU to PHL60.9%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Luis Munoz Marin International (SJU) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.