Route reliability record
TPA→MIA
Tampa to Miami
- Flights
- 2,924
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 204 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B, about a point 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 2,924 TPA to MIA flights, of which American Airlines flew 2,516 at 79.9% on time.
Best time to fly TPA to MIA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.4% of the time and Tuesday flights 85.0%, against 78.6% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,891 completed flights
Avg delay
105 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.09%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
79.9% on time across 2,516 flights
These figures cover 2,924 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on TPA to MIA
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 79.9% of the time; Envoy Air manages 70.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 392 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 2,516 | 79.9% | 111 min | 0.72% | B+ |
| Envoy Air | 392 | 70.9% | 80 min | 3.57% | C− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 16 | 56.2% | 31 min | 0.00% | D+ |
Envoy Air cancels 3.6% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Tampa to Miami
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 1 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. TPA → MIATampa to Miami | American Airlines | 79.3% | 79.9% | 0.72% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 2. TPA → MIATampa to Miami | Envoy Air | 68.4% | 70.9% | 3.57% | 8am–11am, Fri | — |
| 3. TPA → FLLTampa to Fort Lauderdale | Spirit Airlines | 65.1% | 67.8% | 3.91% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 33 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am674 flights93.4%
- 8am–11am1,062 flights84.3%
- 11am–2pm129 flights77.2%
- 2pm–5pm358 flights64.1%
- 5pm–8pm517 flights60.7%
- 8pm–5am184 flights69.7%
Scale runs 50% to 100%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 60.7% on time, against 93.4% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 1,062 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter TPA to MIA by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On TPA to MIA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.4% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 60.7%, a wide gap of 32.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.4%
- 8–11am84.3%
- 11am–2pm77.2%
- 2–5pm64.1%
- 5–8pm60.7%
- 8pm–5am69.7%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 13 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
September is the best month on the calendar at 85.0% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. December was the busiest month here, with 297 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.0%, a spread of 14 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 65,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 40%Carrier
- 10%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 65,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 to one. The split is drawn from 64,657 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 40%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 26,000 of the 65,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.09% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.03%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
At 204 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 71.5% on time across 2,927 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.
The sample behind these figures is 2,924 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in MIA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 85.0% on time and May 72.4%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of May before you think about anything else. 2,891 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
TPA to MIA questions
How often is TPA to MIA delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.4% of the 2,924 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on TPA to MIA?
American Airlines leads at 79.9% on time across 2,516 flights. Envoy Air is at the other end on 70.9%, a gap of 9 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on TPA to MIA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 60.7%, 33 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are May delays on TPA to MIA?
May is the weakest month at 72.4% on time, compared with 85.0% in September. Across the year that is 13 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- MIA to TPA — the return legseparate record
- Tampa International (TPA) delay statistics
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- American Airlines on TPA to MIA79.9%
- Envoy Air on TPA to MIA70.9%
- TPA to ATL, a related route79.6%
- ATL to MIA, a related route71.2%
- TPA to ORD, a related route72.9%
- American Airlines on-time record79.9%
- Envoy Air on-time record70.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record56.2%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
Direction matters. TPA to MIA and MIA to TPA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.