Carrier route record
AASLC→PHL
American Airlines · Salt Lake City to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 214
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 27%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on SLC to PHL earns an A−. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 9 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about 3.5 hours. That rests on 214 flights, with a median arrival 19 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, American's SLC to PHL record is 9 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 94 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
86.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 203 completed flights
Avg delay
208 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.67%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
83.8%
Every carrier on SLC to PHL, 805 flights
These figures cover 214 flights between September 2025 and August 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.
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Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on SLC to PHL
American flew 214 of the 805 flights on SLC to PHL, about 27% of it. Its 86.7% on time is 3 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 83.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 86.7% to Delta at 82.8%.
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 | 214 | 86.7% | 208 min | 4.67% | A− |
| Delta Air Lines | 591 | 82.8% | 55 min | 1.02% | B |
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 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 214 flights.
- 5am–8am116 flights87.2%
- 8am–11am98 flights86.2%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 80% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5am–8am window is the strongest at 87.2% on time. The full set of windows spans about a point.
Across the year
American on SLC to PHL through the year
- Jul–Sep 20252 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202513 flights—
- Jan–Mar 202653 flights84.0%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights89.8%
- Jul–Sep 202655 flights80.4%
Scale runs 70% to 95%. 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 86.7% on time across 214 flights.
Quarter by quarter American on SLC to PHL held fairly steady: 84.0% in Jan–Mar 2026, 89.8% in Apr–Jun 2026 and 80.4% in Jul–Sep 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 90.0% on time and Monday the weakest at 75.0%, a spread of 15 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on SLC to PHL runs when it is late
American on SLC to PHL often beats the schedule: 127 of 203 completed flights, 63%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. When American on SLC to PHL is late it tends to be very late: 15 of its 27 late arrivals were an hour or more behind, and 10 were two hours or more.
- 15+ min early127 flights62.6%
- Within 15 min49 flights24.1%
- 15–29 min late4 flights2.0%
- 30–59 min late8 flights3.9%
- 1–2 hours late5 flights2.5%
- 2+ hours late10 flights4.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 203 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
5 of 29 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 17% of them. Only 3 left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on SLC to PHL
The latest arrival of the period was on 28 August 2026, 29 hours 22 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 |
|---|---|---|
| 28 August 2026 | 29 hours 22 minutes | Carrier |
| 2 April 2026 | 9 hours 5 minutes | Carrier |
| 5 March 2026 | 8 hours 13 minutes | Carrier |
| 15 June 2026 | 7 hours | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 5 April 2026 | 6 hours 35 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 75% of the 5,619 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 75%Carrier
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 3%National Airspace System
The largest share of delay minutes, 75%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,212 of the 5,619 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 5,619 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.67%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in twenty 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
7.4% 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 about 3.5 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 74.9% on time across 213 flights, 12 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 12 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 214 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 4.67% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 3.5 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. 203 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 PHL82.8%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Salt Lake City International (SLC) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
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.