Route profile
ALB→BWI
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Albany to Baltimore, 289 miles.
Right now
FlyerIntel does not currently have live operational data for this airport.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 90% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,158 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
ALB → BWI arrives on time 86.8% of the time; the return trip, BWI → ALB, arrives on time 75.9% of the time, a 10.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ALB → BWI spends 16.5 minutes on the ground on a 289-mile trip: 11.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ALB and 5.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at BWI.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route stays close to typical even on its worst days, a smaller gap than 91% of 4,598 comparable routes.
A typical arrival is 9 min early, and the worst tenth are only 31 minutes worse than that.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 4,598 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where ALB to BWI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
ALB to BWI is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 86.9% arrive on time, 9.9 points ahead of the 77.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.3 points.
ALB to BWI struggles most at 6 PM: 61.2% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 8.6 points behind the 69.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
ALB to BWI holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 87.7% on time to their 78.4%, a 9.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 10.5 points.
June is kinder to ALB to BWI than to routes of similar length: 84.6% on time against 73.9%, 10.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 11.9 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on ALB to BWI than on its routes of similar length: 86.8% on time here, 80.2% there, 6.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 9.4 points.
ALB to BWI against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 86.9% | routes of similar length | 77.0% | +9.9 pts | 343 here, 46,687 there |
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 61.2% | routes of similar length | 69.8% | −8.6 pts | 183 here, 48,977 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 87.7% | routes of similar length | 78.4% | +9.3 pts | 745 here, 116,825 there |
| Month: June | 84.6% | routes of similar length | 73.9% | +10.7 pts | 421 here, 63,044 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 86.8% | routes of similar length | 80.2% | +6.6 pts | 5,098 here, 259,179 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 289 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why ALB → BWI flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
ALB → BWI cancelled 54 of 5,158 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 96. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 57.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 166 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 54 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
31 cancellations, 57.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
17 cancellations, 31.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
6 cancellations, 11.1% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
54 coded cancellations were recorded on ALB → BWI; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
22 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 5,158 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BWI after arriving from ALB.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 27% | High risk |
| 45 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 7.4% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.0% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.6% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.05% of the time and diverts 0.12% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,098 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 22 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,158 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ALB → BWI flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 94.9% of the time, against 68.3% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 26.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 94.9% on time from 475 flights
- 6 AM: 95.8% on time from 652 flights
- 7 AM: 91.9% on time from 126 flights
- 8 AM: 94.4% on time from 379 flights
- 9 AM: 93.9% on time from 230 flights
- 10 AM: 94.6% on time from 315 flights
- 11 AM: 89.7% on time from 314 flights
- 12 PM: 83.9% on time from 446 flights
- 1 PM: 86.8% on time from 314 flights
- 2 PM: 86.9% on time from 346 flights
- 3 PM: 77.6% on time from 420 flights
- 4 PM: 77.2% on time from 384 flights
- 5 PM: 77.5% on time from 476 flights
- 6 PM: 61.2% on time from 189 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why ALB → BWI runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for ALB → BWI. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on ALB → BWI, at 47.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 94.9% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 68.3%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 5,158 | 86.8% | 1.05% | -9 min | 4.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 90.1%
- Feb: 90.7%
- Mar: 87.2%
- Apr: 90.5%
- May: 85.6%
- Jun: 84.6%
- Jul: 77.4%
- Aug: 85.3%
- Sep: 89.9%
- Oct: 89.8%
- Nov: 91.6%
- Dec: 83.0%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 14.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 70.7% from 135 flights
- August 2023: 83.2% from 145 flights
- September 2023: 88.1% from 136 flights
- October 2023: 91.1% from 146 flights
- November 2023: 91.5% from 143 flights
- December 2023: 87.2% from 149 flights
- January 2024: 88.6% from 136 flights
- February 2024: 95.2% from 126 flights
- March 2024: 83.5% from 143 flights
- April 2024: 82.7% from 139 flights
- May 2024: 76.2% from 143 flights
- June 2024: 85.9% from 135 flights
- July 2024: 76.4% from 141 flights
- August 2024: 82.1% from 147 flights
- September 2024: 86.9% from 145 flights
- October 2024: 93.1% from 146 flights
- November 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- December 2024: 85.6% from 125 flights
- January 2025: 88.2% from 121 flights
- February 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- March 2025: 87.8% from 125 flights
- April 2025: 95.1% from 123 flights
- May 2025: 86.7% from 129 flights
- June 2025: 82.4% from 138 flights
- July 2025: 81.0% from 145 flights
- August 2025: 90.5% from 148 flights
- September 2025: 94.5% from 146 flights
- October 2025: 85.3% from 150 flights
- November 2025: 90.9% from 145 flights
- December 2025: 76.5% from 152 flights
- January 2026: 93.4% from 129 flights
- February 2026: 91.4% from 132 flights
- March 2026: 90.1% from 153 flights
- April 2026: 94.0% from 150 flights
- May 2026: 93.5% from 154 flights
- June 2026: 85.3% from 151 flights
- July 2026: 80.8% from 154 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 88.7% against 87.0% in the 12 months before — improving by 1.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,158 ALB → BWI flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed