Southwest Airlines Reliability

Reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Airline Reliability Score

71/ 100Good

Better than 77% of US reporting carriers (15 compared)

Calculated from 4,371,639 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

78.2%

3,383,140 of 4,324,299

Cancellation rate

0.86%

37,429 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-4 min

Average 5.9 min

Severe delays

6.0%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

54 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Departure punctuality

74.8%

Left the gate on time

Against the 15 carriers FlyerIntel covers — all measured over the same period, from the same source — Southwest Airlines ranks 9th of 15 for on-time arrivals, 1st for cancellations and 4th for arrivals more than an hour late. The full table is at the foot of this page.

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07) Southwest Airlines arrived on time 76.4% of the time, against 80.7% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07) — declining by 4.3 percentage points.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

Why Southwest Airlines cancels flights

Every cancellation carries a reason code the operating carrier filed with US DOT. July 2023 – July 2026.

Southwest Airlines cancelled 37,429 of 4,371,639 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 117. The reason it filed most often was extreme weather, 64.5% of the cancellations it coded — about 1 in every 181 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather64.5%

Airline21.7%

Air traffic13.8%

Security0.0%

Of 37,429 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 181

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

24,127 cancellations, 64.5% of the total.

The airline1 in 537

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

8,140 cancellations, 21.7% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 848

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

5,154 cancellations, 13.8% of the total.

Security1 in 546,455

A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.

8 cancellations, <0.1% of the total.

What these shares do not measure

A reason code is the operating carrier’s own filing. US DOT collects the reason the airline gave; it does not adjudicate it, and carriers differ in how they fill the form in. The split above describes what kind of disruption Southwest Airlines records, not who was at fault when it happened, and it cannot be set against another airline’s split to decide which of the two is better run.

That is measurable rather than a disclaimer. Across the 15 carriers FlyerIntel publishes, the correlation between how much of its own canceling a carrier attributes to itself and how often it actually cancels is -0.46 — negative, which is the wrong sign for a ranking of fault and about the right sign for a difference in filing convention. Hawaiian Airlines attributed 82.8% of its cancellations to itself and cancelled 1.00% of its flights; SkyWest Airlines attributed 2.7% and cancelled 1.33%. The airline taking the most blame is the one that cancels least.

The figure on this page that does compare cleanly between airlines is the cancellation rate in Reliability, because it counts cancellations instead of reading the reason filed for them. The First Flight of the Day sets out the same finding from the airport-carrier records, and declines on the strength of it to compare any two carriers’ codes.

Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.

By airport

Southwest Airlines cancellation causes by airport
Airport	Cancelled	Rate	Airline	Weather	Air traffic	Security
BWI Baltimore	2,848	1.27%	19%	68%	14%	0%
MDW Chicago	2,641	1.20%	14%	76%	10%	0%
DAL Dallas	2,632	1.21%	21%	71%	8%	0%
DEN Denver	2,165	0.75%	22%	63%	15%	0%
LAS Las Vegas	1,712	0.64%	28%	51%	21%	0%
MCO Orlando	1,531	1.06%	20%	60%	20%	0%
HOU Houston	1,455	0.91%	17%	69%	13%	0%
BNA Nashville	1,422	0.83%	11%	78%	11%	0%
PHX Phoenix	1,174	0.57%	32%	53%	15%	0%
SAN San Diego	1,025	0.92%	29%	52%	19%	0%
TPA Tampa	1,024	1.37%	9%	74%	17%	0%
STL St. Louis	1,023	0.82%	14%	75%	11%	0%
LGA New York	994	2.73%	18%	54%	27%	<1%
DCA Washington	774	1.57%	16%	70%	14%	0%
AUS Austin	728	0.62%	22%	66%	12%	0%
MCI Kansas City	689	0.93%	12%	78%	9%	0%
BUR Burbank	689	1.20%	48%	43%	9%	0%
ATL Atlanta	684	0.81%	16%	69%	15%	0%
OAK Oakland	579	0.58%	49%	39%	12%	0%
MSY New Orleans	544	0.94%	12%	78%	10%	<1%
SJC San Jose	511	0.58%	48%	43%	8%	<1%

Shares are of Southwest Airlines’s own coded cancellations at each airport and run across the row, so they total 100%. “Rate” is cancellations as a share of its scheduled departures there. Reading down a column compares one airline with itself in different weather and different airspace, which is the comparison these codes support — a carrier files the same way wherever it flies, so its filing habits largely cancel out of the differences between these rows in a way they never cancel out of a comparison between two airlines. Airports where Southwest Airlines recorded fewer coded cancellations than the published minimum are not listed.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026 · These are the reason codes Southwest Airlines itself filed with US DOT — the reason the airline gave, not an independent finding of fault, and airlines differ in how they apply them. FlyerIntel publishes the split only for carriers with at least 500 coded cancellations in the period; 37,429 were recorded. Whatever the reason code, a cancelled flight may qualify for an automatic refund under DOT’s rule — the refund checker covers eligibility.

Reliability over time

24

25

26

Each column is one month of Southwest Airlines operations. The strongest single month of the period was November 2024 at 87.3% on time; the weakest was June 2026 at 66.0%. Individual months move for reasons that do not repeat — a hurricane season, a technology outage, a winter storm — which is why the section below combines the same data by calendar month instead.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026

Best and worst months to fly

Every Southwest Airlines January stacked on every other January, and so on through the year.

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Southwest Airlines — best and worst months to fly
Month	Flights	On time	Cancelled
January	324,698	81.8%	2.87%
February	306,189	82.9%	0.67%
March	370,002	78.1%	1.11%
April	356,015	79.6%	0.39%
May	362,961	73.8%	0.53%
June	367,098	70.7%	0.52%
July	504,782	70.1%	1.00%
August	358,521	78.4%	0.98%
September	340,792	82.8%	0.42%
October	369,427	81.4%	0.58%
November	349,030	84.5%	0.74%
December	362,124	79.6%	0.56%

Combining 3 to 4 years of operations by calendar month, Southwest Airlines is at its best in November, when 84.5% of arrivals were on time, and at its worst in July at 70.1% — a spread of 14.4 percentage points between two months of the same airline. Cancellations peak in a month of their own: January at 2.87% of flights, against 0.39% in April.

This is the shape of the calendar, not a forecast. It says that if you book Southwest Airlines in July you are booking into the part of the year when this airline has historically been least punctual, and that a November itinerary starts from a better position. It does not say anything about a particular date, and it cannot: the figure behind each month is 3 to 4 years of that same month combined, precisely so that one storm does not decide the answer.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Rates are recalculated from the summed monthly counts, so a heavy month carries more weight than a light one.

Best time to fly Southwest Airlines

How Southwest Airlines departures have done at each hour of each weekday, across its whole network.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the airport each flight leaves from, so the grid mixes time zones across the network.

Wednesday 5–6 AM was the most reliable slot for Southwest Airlines (95.4% on time, 16,156 flights) and Sunday 10–11 PM the least (55.1%, 19,256 flights).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 10.5 points from the network-wide rate, weekday averages 2.8 points.

On-time arrival rate for Southwest Airlines by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM
8 PM–9 PM
9 PM–10 PM
10 PM–11 PM
11 PM–12 AM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Most reliable slot
Least reliable slot

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

Best and worst slots are named only among slots with 500+ flights, and only when the gap is larger than sampling error. Departures before 5 AM (2 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for Southwest Airlines. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
5 AM–6 AM	94.6% on time28,715 flights	95.3% on time16,658 flights	95.4% on time16,156 flights	95.2% on time28,842 flights	94.5% on time29,628 flights	94.1% on time22,815 flights	94.5% on time25,115 flights
6 AM–7 AM	93.7% on time47,695 flights	94.6% on time44,927 flights	94.8% on time44,606 flights	94.5% on time47,316 flights	93.7% on time47,740 flights	93.7% on time42,836 flights	94.0% on time46,569 flights
7 AM–8 AM	90.5% on time40,141 flights	92.8% on time38,370 flights	93.1% on time38,202 flights	91.7% on time40,053 flights	90.6% on time40,268 flights	91.3% on time37,250 flights	91.9% on time38,941 flights
8 AM–9 AM	88.6% on time42,633 flights	91.0% on time43,146 flights	91.0% on time43,237 flights	89.4% on time42,551 flights	88.4% on time42,481 flights	89.1% on time38,095 flights	89.4% on time41,667 flights
9 AM–10 AM	86.2% on time35,803 flights	89.2% on time34,816 flights	89.2% on time34,733 flights	87.0% on time35,785 flights	85.7% on time35,888 flights	87.2% on time32,676 flights	86.6% on time34,878 flights
10 AM–11 AM	84.2% on time40,350 flights	86.9% on time39,636 flights	87.1% on time39,663 flights	84.3% on time40,421 flights	83.2% on time40,328 flights	85.4% on time35,462 flights	84.7% on time39,347 flights
11 AM–12 PM	81.0% on time37,098 flights	86.1% on time37,058 flights	85.3% on time37,081 flights	81.6% on time36,965 flights	79.7% on time37,067 flights	83.1% on time32,440 flights	80.9% on time35,856 flights
12 PM–1 PM	78.7% on time38,689 flights	83.7% on time36,997 flights	83.1% on time36,940 flights	78.4% on time38,738 flights	76.3% on time38,679 flights	81.2% on time33,534 flights	78.1% on time37,578 flights
1 PM–2 PM	75.9% on time39,094 flights	81.7% on time38,390 flights	81.4% on time38,344 flights	74.8% on time39,004 flights	72.8% on time39,155 flights	78.6% on time34,803 flights	74.5% on time38,659 flights
2 PM–3 PM	72.3% on time37,470 flights	78.3% on time36,270 flights	77.1% on time36,318 flights	70.9% on time37,296 flights	69.4% on time37,549 flights	76.6% on time33,390 flights	70.7% on time36,330 flights
3 PM–4 PM	70.5% on time36,955 flights	77.2% on time36,663 flights	75.9% on time36,606 flights	68.6% on time36,870 flights	67.6% on time36,953 flights	73.2% on time34,365 flights	66.8% on time37,477 flights
4 PM–5 PM	68.8% on time37,956 flights	75.8% on time36,864 flights	73.6% on time36,805 flights	65.0% on time37,483 flights	65.1% on time38,027 flights	71.9% on time34,357 flights	64.0% on time37,509 flights
5 PM–6 PM	68.2% on time37,826 flights	73.9% on time36,725 flights	72.2% on time36,705 flights	63.6% on time37,263 flights	64.8% on time37,909 flights	70.6% on time36,522 flights	61.9% on time37,640 flights
6 PM–7 PM	67.0% on time40,234 flights	74.6% on time40,295 flights	72.5% on time40,397 flights	62.0% on time39,286 flights	64.0% on time39,632 flights	69.7% on time32,607 flights	60.5% on time39,158 flights
7 PM–8 PM	66.7% on time39,427 flights	72.5% on time34,969 flights	70.9% on time34,644 flights	62.0% on time38,409 flights	64.2% on time39,453 flights	66.7% on time28,594 flights	59.6% on time38,311 flights
8 PM–9 PM	67.4% on time37,463 flights	75.0% on time29,876 flights	72.8% on time29,687 flights	62.2% on time36,701 flights	64.4% on time37,833 flights	66.7% on time20,444 flights	59.6% on time40,452 flights
9 PM–10 PM	66.9% on time24,665 flights	69.6% on time17,461 flights	67.5% on time16,907 flights	61.7% on time24,085 flights	64.6% on time25,188 flights	60.0% on time12,770 flights	57.9% on time28,814 flights
10 PM–11 PM	64.3% on time11,994 flights	67.5% on time3,576 flights	65.1% on time3,259 flights	61.0% on time12,236 flights	63.0% on time13,180 flights	59.2% on time5,151 flights	55.1% on time19,256 flights
11 PM–12 AM	83.7% on time923 flights	90.0% on time901 flights	86.5% on time898 flights	76.2% on time966 flights	80.4% on time970 flights	86.4% on time912 flights	75.9% on time942 flights

Why Southwest Airlines runs late

Share of total reported delay minutes by cause, as classified by the operating carrier.

Late-arriving aircraft51.4%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline27.8%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Air traffic control18.0%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather2.6%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security0.3%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for Southwest Airlines. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

The largest single category for Southwest Airlines is late-arriving aircraft, at 51.4% of attributed minutes. The category squarely inside the carrier’s own control — crew, maintenance, boarding, fueling — accounts for 27.8% of its delay minutes, against 33.9% across the 15 carriers covered here. That is 6.2 percentage points less of its delay minutes falling inside the airline than is typical for this group.

These shares describe how delay minutes were divided, not how often delays happened. A carrier with an unusually large air-traffic-control share is not necessarily worse run; it may simply fly more of its schedule through congested airspace. The one category that is squarely the airline’s own is the carrier category, which is why it is the one compared above.

Source: US DOT BTS delay cause categories · July 2023 – July 2026 · Cause minutes are only reported for arrivals delayed 15 minutes or more.

How Southwest Airlines handles bad weather

Departures by the weather at the origin in the hour they were scheduled to leave, July 2023 – July 2026.

8% of Southwest Airlines’ weather-matched departures left in an hour of bad weather at the origin. 3.2% of them were cancelled, 4.9 times the 0.7% cancelled in normal hours, and 66.0% of those that flew arrived on time, against 78.4%. Those hours held 28% of the airline’s cancelled departures.

In bad weather Southwest Airlines cancelled fewer flights than other carriers: 3.0% of its departures in those hours were cancelled, against 3.9% for the other carriers at the same airports in the same months. It was below them in normal hours too (0.7% against 1.3%), so part of the difference is there in clear conditions as well. Its flights that operated arrived on time 65.2% of the time, 2.0 points below the others’ 67.2%.

Bad-weather hours against normal hours

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Southwest Airlines cancellation and on-time rates in bad-weather and normal hours at the origin, with the other carriers at the same airports and months
Weather at the origin	Departures	Cancelled	Arrived on time
Normal hours	3,234,927	0.7%	78.4%
Other carriers	3,200,824compared	1.3%	81.0%
Bad-weather hours	294,5358% of all matched	3.2%4.9 times normal	66.0%12.4 points below normal
Other carriers	217,478compared	3.9%	67.2%

Bad weather means IFR or LIFR conditions, or a storm, snow, ice, fog, heavy rain or high wind, at the origin; normal means VFR with none of those. Marginal hours are in neither row, and were 9% of Southwest Airlines’ matched departures. Cancelled is the share of scheduled departures. The other carriers’ rows apply their rate in each airport and month to the departures Southwest Airlines had there.

The most exposed airports were LGA (7.6% of 4,610), DAL (7.2% of 14,554), DCA (6.0% of 4,730); the least, SEA (0.4% of 2,229), LAX (0.6% of 8,724), SLC (0.6% of 2,115). The widest gap above the other carriers was at SAN, San Diego: 4.5% cancelled against 3.2%. The widest below them was at DCA, Washington: 6.0% cancelled against 10.0%.

Most exposed airports

Most exposed airports: Southwest Airlines departures in bad weather by airport
Airport	Departures	Cancelled	Other carriers	Normal hours
LGA New York	4,610	7.6%	9.3%	1.8%
DAL Dallas	14,554	7.2%	—	0.7%
DCA Washington	4,730	6.0%	10.0%	1.1%

Least exposed airports

Least exposed airports: Southwest Airlines departures in bad weather by airport
Airport	Departures	Cancelled	Other carriers	Normal hours
SEA Seattle	2,229	0.4%	1.5%	0.3%
LAX Los Angeles	8,724	0.6%	1.1%	0.5%
SLC Salt Lake City	2,115	0.6%	0.6%	0.4%

Airports are listed with at least 500 of Southwest Airlines’ bad-weather departures and 500 weather-matched departures in all. Other carriers is their cancellation rate in the same airport and months, applied to Southwest Airlines’ departures there, and is left blank where Southwest Airlines was nearly the only carrier flying in the bad-weather hours of most months and there is no one to compare with.

This is the weather reported at the origin in the hour a flight was scheduled to leave, July 2023 – July 2026. It leaves out the weather at the destination and on the way, and an hour takes the worst conditions any report in it gave. Weather was matched to 88.4% of Southwest Airlines’ scheduled departures: the rest left from airports with no archived weather, in hours with no report, or at a scheduled time the flight records cannot place exactly. The comparison covers 1,363 airport-months in which Southwest Airlines flew in bad weather; the other carriers are held to the same airport and calendar month, not the same hour of the day or the same aircraft, so a carrier that schedules more of those departures at the busiest or the quietest times is not fully adjusted for. 77,057 of its bad-weather departures were in an airport and month where the other carriers had fewer than 120 of their own, and are not in that comparison.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS flight records and Iowa Environmental Mesonet weather reports · July 2023 – July 2026 · Where the weather comes from, and its limits. All covered airports side by side: What Weather Costs Each Airport.

Turning aircraft around at Southwest Airlines

Time on the ground between one flight and the next of the same aircraft, and what a late arrival does to the next departure, July 2023 – July 2026.

The median Southwest Airlines turn is scheduled for 45 minutes on the ground and takes 54 minutes, against 56 minutes and 63 minutes across all airlines. Southwest Airlines schedules its aircraft a shorter time on the ground than the network does.

When the aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late (671,148 turns, 49 minutes late on average), 49% of the turns were finished in no more than the scheduled ground time, against 68% across all airlines. 84% of those flights left 15 or more minutes late, against 72%. After an aircraft that landed on time, 15% did (network 11%).

Given the turn lengths it schedules, the network’s rates would give 59% finished in the schedule and 81% leaving late. By that measure Southwest Airlines finished fewer late turns in the schedule and passed lateness on to the next departure more often than the network would have. 40% of its late-inbound turns had a scheduled turn of 45 to 59 minutes, against 31% of the network’s.

Turns, Southwest Airlines against the network

3,481,102 turns, July 2023 – July 2026

Southwest Airlines aircraft turns against all airlines: scheduled and actual time on the ground and what a late inbound aircraft does
Measure	Southwest Airlines	All airlines	All airlines, same turn lengths
Median scheduled turn	45 min	56 min	—
Median actual turn	54 min	63 min	—
Turns that began with an aircraft 15+ minutes late	19%	19%	—
Late turns finished within the schedule	49%	68%	59%
Late inbound that left 15+ minutes late	84%	72%	81%
On-time inbound that left 15+ minutes late	15%	11%	—

Late means 15 or more minutes. A turn finishes within the schedule when the aircraft spent no more time on the ground than the schedule gave it. The last column applies the network’s rate in each scheduled-turn band (under 30 minutes up to 3 to 6 hours) to the number of Southwest Airlines turns in that band, so it shows what the same turn lengths would give across all airlines.

A turn pairs an aircraft’s landing with its next departure by tail number; the aircraft is never named. These 3,481,102 turns are 80% of Southwest Airlines’ flights in the period; the rest are an aircraft’s first flight after a long stay, flights without a usable inbound, and cancelled flights. Ground time is measured from the gate: the scheduled turn plus the departing flight’s delay minus the inbound’s arrival delay. Overnight stays (6 hours or more on the ground), cancelled flights and flights whose inbound diverted are not turns here. Turns scheduled under 30 minutes are a small share and are kept, but they are rarely a plan for that aircraft (more often a swap or recovery, with the flight waiting for an aircraft that was not the one scheduled), so most of them across the network leave late even after an on-time landing. A flight that an airline covered with a different aircraft is linked to the one that flew it, not the one first planned.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS flight records · July 2023 – July 2026 · All airlines side by side: How Fast an Aircraft Turns When It Has To.

What sets Southwest Airlines apart

Where Southwest Airlines differs most from the other covered airlines, July 2023 – July 2026.

Southwest Airlines flights scheduled to leave at 7 AM arrive on time 91.7% of the time, 5 points better than the 86.7% the other covered airlines manage at that hour.

10 PM is where Southwest Airlines falls furthest behind the other airlines: 60.7% of its 10 PM departures arrive on time, 13.2 points below the 73.9% for that hour elsewhere.

January suits Southwest Airlines more than it suits the other airlines: 81.8% on time against 78.0%, 3.8 points ahead.

Southwest Airlines’ weakest month against the field is June, 70.7% on time to 74.5% for the other airlines, 3.8 points short.

HNL is where Southwest Airlines stands out most against local competition: 91.4% of its departures arrive on time, 7.9 points above the 83.5% of the other airlines out of the same airport.

Out of SFO, Southwest Airlines arrives on time 65.3% of the time, 14.3 points below the 79.6% the other airlines there manage.

Taxi-out for Southwest Airlines averages 14.0 minutes, 5.3 minutes less than the 19.3 minutes at the other covered airlines.

Southwest Airlines against the other airlines

July 2023 – July 2026

Where Southwest Airlines differs most from the other covered airlines, with the flights behind each figure
Measure	Southwest Airlines	Elsewhere	Gap	Flights behind it
Hour: 7 AM departures	91.7%	86.7%	+5.0 pts	270,696 here, 1,258,026 elsewhere
Hour: 10 PM departures	60.7%	73.9%	−13.2 pts	67,517 here, 428,064 elsewhere
Month: January	81.8%	78.0%	+3.8 pts	314,853 here, 1,250,005 elsewhere
Month: June	70.7%	74.5%	−3.8 pts	363,943 here, 1,431,996 elsewhere
Airport: HNL	91.4%	83.5%	+7.9 pts	41,856 here, 142,556 elsewhere
Airport: SFO	65.3%	79.6%	−14.3 pts	25,882 here, 404,363 elsewhere
Taxi-out: Departures	14.0 min	19.3 min	−5.3 min	4,335,085 here, 17,057,889 elsewhere

“Elsewhere” is every other covered airline together, from the same aggregates as this page. Hours and months appear only where both sides have at least 120 completed flights; airports only where Southwest Airlines and everyone else there each have at least 500. Gaps must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest in each direction is shown. Airlines fly different airports, so the hour and month rows partly compare different traffic; the airport rows compare like with like. The taxi figure is weighted by departures, mixes airports, and has no error estimate, so it appears from 2 minutes.

Where this airline flies

Departure performance at the airports FlyerIntel covers.

Airports served

111

59 of them covered in detail here

Departures from its largest base

6.6%

DEN · Denver

Departures from its top three

17.9%

DEN, LAS, BWI

Southwest Airlines departed from 111 airports in this period, with no single one accounting for more than 6.6% of departures and the largest three together 17.9%. Performance is spread across the network rather than resting on one or two hubs, so a single weak airport moves this carrier’s overall figure less than it would at a hub-and-spoke airline.

Where this airline flies
Airport	Departures	On time	Cancelled	Median delay
DEN Denver	289,847	71.2%	0.75%	0 min
LAS Las Vegas	268,444	75.6%	0.64%	-3 min
BWI Baltimore	224,730	74.9%	1.27%	-2 min
MDW Chicago	220,288	76.4%	1.20%	-3 min
DAL Dallas	216,788	75.8%	1.21%	-3 min
PHX Phoenix	205,927	77.5%	0.57%	-2 min
BNA Nashville	170,496	77.7%	0.83%	-4 min
HOU Houston	159,275	78.8%	0.91%	-4 min
MCO Orlando	144,368	74.4%	1.06%	-2 min
STL St. Louis	125,341	78.1%	0.82%	-4 min
AUS Austin	117,342	76.6%	0.62%	-3 min
SAN San Diego	110,930	75.3%	0.92%	-3 min

Strongest airports

HNL (91.4%), SBA (85.8%), BUR (84.5%)

Weakest airports

SFO (65.3%), DEN (71.2%), SEA (73.5%)

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Airports where this carrier flew fewer than 500 departures are not listed.

Route performance

Southwest Airlines’ own on-time rate on each route — this carrier's flights only, which can differ from the route's rate across every airline that flies it.

Most reliable

HNL→LAXHonolulu to Los Angeles90.4%LAX→SLCLos Angeles to Salt Lake City87.4%RDU→ATLRaleigh–Durham to Atlanta86.2%MIA→MCOMiami to Orlando86.0%LAX→HNLLos Angeles to Honolulu85.3%MEM→ATLMemphis to Atlanta84.0%SNA→PHXSanta Ana to Phoenix83.7%MCI→ATLKansas City to Atlanta83.2%

Least reliable

LAS→SFOLas Vegas to San Francisco55.2%DEN→SFODenver to San Francisco56.1%SAN→SFOSan Diego to San Francisco59.9%SFO→SANSan Francisco to San Diego60.4%DEN→BOSDenver to Boston60.7%LAX→SFOLos Angeles to San Francisco62.1%PHX→SFOPhoenix to San Francisco63.4%DEN→SEADenver to Seattle63.7%

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Routes with fewer than 600 flights by this carrier are not ranked.

Where Southwest Airlines flies best and worst

The airports and routes where Southwest Airlines is on time most and least often, set beside the other airlines at the same place.

Southwest Airlines arrives on time 91.4% of the time at HNL, 7.9 points better than the 83.5% for the other airlines there.

Southwest Airlines arrives on time 85.8% of the time at SBA, 4.7 points better than the 81.1% for the other airlines there.

Southwest Airlines arrives on time 84.5% of the time at BUR, 4.6 points better than the 79.9% for the other airlines there.

Southwest Airlines manages 65.3% at SFO, 14.3 points below the 79.6% for the other airlines there.

Southwest Airlines manages 71.2% at DEN, 6.9 points below the 78.1% for the other airlines there.

Southwest Airlines manages 73.5% at SEA, 5.9 points below the 79.4% for the other airlines there.

Southwest Airlines arrives on time 90.4% of the time on HNL to LAX, 7.7 points better than the 82.7% for the other airlines on it.

LAX to SLC is a strong route for Southwest Airlines at 87.4%, but the other airlines on it do about as well at 88.3%, so the route is easy rather than the airline special.

RDU to ATL is a strong route for Southwest Airlines at 86.2%, but the other airlines on it do about as well at 84.8%, so the route is easy rather than the airline special.

Southwest Airlines manages 55.2% on LAS to SFO, 14.4 points below the 69.6% for the other airlines on it.

Southwest Airlines manages 56.1% on DEN to SFO, 16.1 points below the 72.2% for the other airlines on it.

Southwest Airlines manages 59.9% on SAN to SFO, 9.2 points below the 69.1% for the other airlines on it.

Airports, best and worst

Airports, best and worst: Southwest Airlines on-time rate beside the other airlines, with the flights behind each figure
Place	Southwest Airlines	Other airlines	Flights behind it
HNL	91.4%	83.5%	41,856 here, 142,556 others
SBA	85.8%	81.1%	5,824 here, 18,417 others
BUR	84.5%	79.9%	56,733 here, 35,507 others
SFO	65.3%	79.6%	25,882 here, 404,363 others
DEN	71.2%	78.1%	287,058 here, 664,483 others
SEA	73.5%	79.4%	25,170 here, 479,264 others

Routes, best and worst

Routes, best and worst: Southwest Airlines on-time rate beside the other airlines, with the flights behind each figure
Place	Southwest Airlines	Other airlines	Flights behind it
HNL to LAX	90.4%	82.7%	1,515 here, 15,400 others
LAX to SLC	87.4%	88.3%	1,157 here, 12,075 others
RDU to ATL	86.2%	84.8%	1,758 here, 12,431 others
LAS to SFO	55.2%	69.6%	4,041 here, 14,023 others
DEN to SFO	56.1%	72.2%	4,673 here, 12,309 others
SAN to SFO	59.9%	69.1%	5,191 here, 14,550 others

July 2023 – July 2026. Airports need at least 2,000 completed flights by Southwest Airlines, routes 600. The other airlines are everyone else at the same airport or on the same route, compared only where they have at least 500 (airports) or 200 (routes) completed flights; a gap counts as ahead or behind only at 2 points and 2 standard errors. Route figures are for one direction. Airlines fly different times of day and aircraft, so a gap is a comparison, not a cause.

Most and least reliable flights

Individual Southwest Airlines flight numbers, ranked on the route each one flies today.

Most reliable

WN4HOU→DAL · 7:00 AM95.2%WN1636HOU→DAL · 6:00 AM94.4%WN1628DAL→HOU · 6:00 AM94.3%WN1DAL→HOU · 7:00 AM89.9%

Least reliable

WN39DAL→HOU · 4:00 PM72.3%WN54HOU→DAL · 8:30 PM72.9%WN52HOU→DAL · 7:00 PM73.5%WN19DAL→HOU · 11:30 AM82.3%

9 Southwest Airlines flight numbers have operated their current route at least 600 times. The strongest of them, WN4 from Houston to Dallas, arrived on time 95.2% of the time. The weakest, WN39 from Dallas to Houston, managed 72.3% — a gap of 23 percentage points inside one airline.

Choosing between two flights on the same airline and the same day is a decision most travelers make on price and timing alone, because nothing at the point of booking distinguishes them. These figures do. They are the record of the exact flight number, on the route it flies today, over the whole analysis period — not a carrier average applied to it.

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · A flight number is a slot in a schedule and gets reassigned to different city pairs over time, so each is measured only on the route it currently operates. Numbers with fewer than 600 operations on that route, or last flown more than a quarter ago, are not ranked. Schedules change — confirm a departure still operates before booking around it.

Compare airlines

Every carrier on FlyerIntel is measured the same way, over the same period, using the same source data. That is the whole point of the table: airline marketing reports punctuality on definitions of its own choosing, and this does not.

Compare airlines
Airline	Score	On time	Cancelled	60+ min late	Flights
Endeavor Air	70	85.1%	2.30%	6.0%	304,230
Hawaiian Airlines	80	83.7%	1.00%	2.9%	199,679
Republic Airways	61	82.3%	3.26%	6.7%	1,004,281
Delta Air Lines	71	82.1%	1.16%	6.3%	3,146,502
SkyWest Airlines	64	80.4%	1.33%	7.9%	2,433,643
Envoy Air	66	80.1%	1.80%	6.6%	886,878
United Airlines	66	79.7%	1.21%	7.5%	2,418,979
Alaska Airlines	71	78.9%	1.28%	5.0%	813,732
Southwest Airlines	71	78.2%	0.86%	6.0%	4,371,639
PSA Airlines	44	75.8%	3.43%	10.4%	717,562
Allegiant Air	58	75.7%	0.94%	9.5%	381,495
Spirit Airlines	54	75.5%	2.06%	9.6%	635,598
American Airlines	52	74.8%	1.76%	10.0%	3,019,376
JetBlue	45	72.5%	2.19%	11.7%	745,492
Frontier Airlines	45	71.8%	2.09%	11.5%	629,235

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Score is the FlyerIntel Airline Reliability Score. See all airlines ranked →

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,371,639 Southwest Airlines flight records published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and reported separately, because folding them in would flatter a carrier that cancels rather than runs late. Figures below a published sample threshold are omitted rather than shown with a caveat.

Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

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Southwest Airlines on-time performance, from FlyerIntel

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