Route profile
BNA→PHL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Nashville to Philadelphia, 675 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 24% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 8,583 flights. How this is calculated
BNA → PHL arrives on time 75.6% of the time; the return trip, PHL → BNA, arrives on time 77.0% of the time.
BNA → PHL spends 24.6 minutes on the ground on a 675-mile trip: 16.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BNA and 7.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at PHL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where BNA to PHL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BNA to PHL struggles most at 2 PM: 62.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 11.9 points behind the 74.2% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.3 points.
BNA to PHL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 76.3% arrive on time, 9.4 points ahead of the 66.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
In May, BNA to PHL runs 6.1 points below routes of similar length, 68.0% on time to 74.1%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.3 points.
Spirit Airlines does better on BNA to PHL than on its routes of similar length: 78.0% on time here, 73.2% there, 4.8 points apart.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on BNA to PHL arrive on time 73.7% of the time, 3.9 points below the 77.6% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 3.7 points.
BNA to PHL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 62.3% | routes of similar length | 74.2% | −11.9 pts | 1,054 here, 125,325 there |
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 76.3% | routes of similar length | 66.9% | +9.4 pts | 253 here, 148,663 there |
| Month: May | 68.0% | routes of similar length | 74.1% | −6.1 pts | 679 here, 194,591 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 78.0% | routes of similar length | 73.2% | +4.8 pts | 646 here, 78,713 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 73.7% | routes of similar length | 77.6% | −3.9 pts | 2,595 here, 561,256 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 675 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 BNA → PHL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
BNA → PHL cancelled 164 of 8,583 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 52. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 73.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 71 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 164 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.
121 cancellations, 73.8% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
33 cancellations, 20.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
10 cancellations, 6.1% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
164 coded cancellations were recorded on BNA → PHL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
51 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 8,583 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PHL after arriving from BNA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 24% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.1% | Some 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 1.91% of the time and diverts 0.16% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 8,405 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 51 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 8,583 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BNA → PHL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.2% of the time, against 66.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 21.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 86.6% on time from 1,041 flights
- 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 88.5% on time from 177 flights
- 9 AM: 86.7% on time from 732 flights
- 10 AM: 87.8% on time from 1,177 flights
- 11 AM: 81.2% on time from 483 flights
- 12 PM: 79.5% on time from 354 flights
- 1 PM: 72.7% on time from 426 flights
- 2 PM: 62.3% on time from 1,083 flights
- 3 PM: 71.1% on time from 420 flights
- 4 PM: 62.1% on time from 612 flights
- 5 PM: 68.6% on time from 624 flights
- 6 PM: 76.3% on time from 257 flights
- 7 PM: 66.3% on time from 529 flights
- 8 PM: 57.8% on time from 335 flights
- 9 PM: 68.0% on time from 205 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why BNA → PHL 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 BNA → PHL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BNA → PHL, at 53.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.2% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 66.0%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 2,975 | 75.1% | 1.95% | -6 min | 9.9% |
| Southwest Airlines | 2,613 | 73.7% | 0.57% | 0 min | 6.6% |
| PSA Airlines | 1,132 | 77.5% | 4.59% | -7 min | 9.5% |
| Republic Airways | 718 | 83.1% | 1.95% | -4 min | 5.4% |
| Spirit Airlines | 655 | 78.0% | 1.37% | -7 min | 8.5% |
| Frontier Airlines | 490 | 70.4% | 3.27% | -5 min | 14.2% |
American Airlines flew 34.7% of the 8,583 flights listed. PSA Airlines cancelled 4.59% of its flights here against 0.57% for Southwest Airlines.
Republic Airways arrived on time 12.7 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA2809 American Airlines | 6:00 AM | 668 | 86.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.5%
- Feb: 81.7%
- Mar: 77.9%
- Apr: 77.7%
- May: 68.0%
- Jun: 70.7%
- Jul: 67.0%
- Aug: 75.6%
- Sep: 78.5%
- Oct: 78.7%
- Nov: 80.5%
- Dec: 75.8%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 14.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 69.0% from 248 flights
- August 2023: 83.8% from 242 flights
- September 2023: 80.3% from 240 flights
- October 2023: 83.3% from 264 flights
- November 2023: 83.7% from 228 flights
- December 2023: 77.7% from 221 flights
- January 2024: 80.1% from 210 flights
- February 2024: 90.2% from 184 flights
- March 2024: 81.3% from 187 flights
- April 2024: 78.9% from 213 flights
- May 2024: 62.9% from 228 flights
- June 2024: 74.7% from 245 flights
- July 2024: 66.8% from 273 flights
- August 2024: 69.0% from 285 flights
- September 2024: 77.3% from 260 flights
- October 2024: 80.2% from 255 flights
- November 2024: 82.6% from 237 flights
- December 2024: 75.2% from 218 flights
- January 2025: 80.4% from 199 flights
- February 2025: 81.6% from 183 flights
- March 2025: 75.9% from 215 flights
- April 2025: 78.6% from 222 flights
- May 2025: 67.8% from 219 flights
- June 2025: 65.8% from 228 flights
- July 2025: 68.2% from 233 flights
- August 2025: 74.9% from 247 flights
- September 2025: 78.1% from 234 flights
- October 2025: 73.1% from 284 flights
- November 2025: 74.9% from 225 flights
- December 2025: 74.2% from 204 flights
- January 2026: 81.0% from 195 flights
- February 2026: 73.4% from 202 flights
- March 2026: 77.0% from 243 flights
- April 2026: 75.8% from 244 flights
- May 2026: 73.0% from 245 flights
- June 2026: 71.3% from 260 flights
- July 2026: 64.1% from 263 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.0% against 75.0% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 8,583 BNA → PHL 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