Carrier route record
AASLC→PHL
American Airlines · Salt Lake City to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 220
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 26%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on SLC to PHL earns an A−. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 12 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about 3.3 hours. That rests on 220 flights, with a median arrival 19 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, American's SLC to PHL record is 12 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 122 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
89.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 206 completed flights
Avg delay
198 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.91%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
84.7%
Every carrier on SLC to PHL, 833 flights
These figures cover 220 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 19 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 SLC to PHL
American flew 220 of the 833 flights on SLC to PHL, about 26% of it. Its 89.8% on time is 5 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 84.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 89.8% to Delta at 82.9%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 220 | 89.8% | 198 min | 5.91% | A− |
| Delta Air Lines | 613 | 82.9% | 49 min | 1.14% | B |
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 220 flights.
- 5am–8am86 flights95.1%
- 8am–11am98 flights86.2%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am36 flights87.1%
Scale runs 80% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 95.1% of the time, against 86.2% for the morning window. That is 9 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 98 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on SLC to PHL through the year
- Jul–Sep 202563 flights92.9%
- Oct–Dec 202513 flights—
- Jan–Mar 202653 flights84.0%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights89.8%
Scale runs 75% to 100%. 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 89.8% on time across 220 flights.
Quarter by quarter American on SLC to PHL held fairly steady: 92.9% in Jul–Sep 2025, 84.0% in Jan–Mar 2026 and 89.8% in Apr–Jun 2026. A spread of 9 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 96.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 83.3%. 13 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 68% of the 4,148 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.
- 68%Carrier
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 2%National Airspace System
The largest share of delay minutes, 68%, 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 2,809 of the 4,148 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 4,148 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 95.1% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.91%, against 1.81% nationally. That is roughly one flight in fifteen 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
5.8% 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 about 3.3 hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,927 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 72.9% on time across 220 flights, 17 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 17 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 220 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 SLC to PHL
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.91% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 3.3 hours; 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. 206 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- SLC to PHL, every carrier
- American on PHL to SLC, the return leg
- Delta Air Lines on SLC to PHL82.9%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Salt Lake City International (SLC) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- 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.