Carrier route record
AASJU→PHL
American Airlines · San Juan to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 701
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 37%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on SJU to PHL lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 701 flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, 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
79.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 681 completed flights
Avg delay
95 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.71%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
70.5%
Every carrier on SJU to PHL, 1,881 flights
These figures cover 701 flights between July 2025 and June 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.
Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on SJU to PHL
American flew 701 of the 1,881 flights on SJU to PHL, about 37% of it. Its 79.4% on time is 9 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 70.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from JetBlue at 95.8% to Frontier at 61.0%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 97 | 95.8% | 25 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 701 | 79.4% | 95 min | 2.71% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 216 | 67.5% | 67 min | 7.41% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 867 | 61.0% | 83 min | 3.34% | D− |
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. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am251 flights85.2%
- 8am–11am78 flights79.2%
- 11am–2pm112 flights83.0%
- 2pm–5pm184 flights75.3%
- 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 85.2% 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 251 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 72.0%. 16 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 54% of the 13,000 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.
- 54%Carrier
- 34%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
34% 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 13,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 34 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 13,302 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 54%, 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 7,200 of the 13,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 2.71%, against 1.81% 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
6.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last an hour and a half, 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 68.2% on time across 701 flights, 11 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 11 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 701 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. 701 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 79.4% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 681 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
- Spirit Airlines on SJU to PHL67.5%
- Frontier Airlines on SJU to PHL61.0%
- 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.