BOS → PHL Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · BOSNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:54 UTC

Boston airport profile →

Destination · PHLNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:54 UTC

Philadelphia airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

55/ 100Fair

Better than 24% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 15,483 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

78.2%

11,826 of 15,114

Cancellation rate

2.31%

357 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-9 min

Average 9.3 min

Severe delays

9.2%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

87 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

15,483

4 carriers

BOS → PHL arrives on time 78.2% of the time; the return trip, PHL → BOS, arrives on time 76.1% of the time, a 2.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

BOS → PHL spends 28.9 minutes on the ground on a 280-mile trip: 21.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BOS and 7.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at PHL.

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

Why BOS → PHL flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

BOS → PHL cancelled 357 of 15,483 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 43. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 57.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 76 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather57.4%

Air traffic26.1%

Airline16.5%

Security0.0%

Of 357 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 76

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

205 cancellations, 57.4% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 166

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

93 cancellations, 26.1% of the total.

The airline1 in 262

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

59 cancellations, 16.5% of the total.

Security—

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.

357 coded cancellations were recorded on BOS → PHL; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

54 min late

against a median of 9 min early

Arrived an hour or more late9.2%

Typical delay when late87 min

Cancelled2.31%

Landed somewhere else0.08%

BOS → PHL has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 9 min early, but the worst tenth are 63 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.

Percentiles over 15,483 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at PHL after arriving from BOS.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, BOS → PHL arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	34%	Likely to miss
45 min	21%	High risk
60 min	15%	High risk
90 min	9.0%	Some risk
120 min	5.7%	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 2.31% of the time and diverts 0.08% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 15,114 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 54 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 15,483 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

BOS → PHL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.8% of the time, against 65.8% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 23.0 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (BOS).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 10.4 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.8 points.

On-time arrival rate for BOS to PHL by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
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

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

40–49
50–59
60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

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.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures before 6 AM and after 8 PM (1,283 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 BOS to PHL. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	91.9% on time158 flights	90.7% on time164 flights	90.4% on time159 flights	94.0% on time168 flights	96.7% on time154 flights	105 flights, too few to score	92.6% on time156 flights
7 AM–8 AM	87.5% on time219 flights	91.1% on time196 flights	91.9% on time209 flights	93.1% on time205 flights	88.0% on time201 flights	95.0% on time141 flights	90.9% on time171 flights
8 AM–9 AM	80.8% on time281 flights	85.4% on time286 flights	86.7% on time270 flights	80.2% on time291 flights	83.0% on time294 flights	82.2% on time199 flights	87.0% on time264 flights
9 AM–10 AM	106 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score	103 flights, too few to score	77.5% on time120 flights	102 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	79.9% on time144 flights
10 AM–11 AM	119 flights, too few to score	119 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score	86.3% on time131 flights	119 flights, too few to score	82.0% on time140 flights	78.0% on time130 flights
11 AM–12 PM	79.8% on time179 flights	83.9% on time157 flights	91.5% on time164 flights	84.8% on time164 flights	82.9% on time175 flights	78.9% on time169 flights	80.6% on time144 flights
12 PM–1 PM	78.7% on time144 flights	115 flights, too few to score	80.4% on time139 flights	83.9% on time124 flights	75.3% on time146 flights	105 flights, too few to score	72.9% on time148 flights
1 PM–2 PM	61 flights, too few to score	69 flights, too few to score	64 flights, too few to score	62 flights, too few to score	63 flights, too few to score	76 flights, too few to score	58 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	111 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	109 flights, too few to score	109 flights, too few to score	108 flights, too few to score	32 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	66.5% on time172 flights	82.9% on time164 flights	76.7% on time160 flights	73.9% on time167 flights	71.4% on time171 flights	99 flights, too few to score	71.2% on time142 flights
4 PM–5 PM	56.0% on time145 flights	69.4% on time152 flights	65.5% on time145 flights	52.7% on time149 flights	54.1% on time150 flights	72.5% on time143 flights	55.0% on time150 flights
5 PM–6 PM	96 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score	90 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score	116 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score
6 PM–7 PM	54.8% on time133 flights	111 flights, too few to score	105 flights, too few to score	49.2% on time128 flights	56.5% on time135 flights	91 flights, too few to score	60.6% on time139 flights
7 PM–8 PM	69.4% on time229 flights	72.2% on time215 flights	79.6% on time212 flights	62.5% on time225 flights	68.2% on time222 flights	69 flights, too few to score	63.7% on time213 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM88.8%

9 AM–12 PM83.0%

12–3 PM79.5%

3–6 PM67.1%

6–9 PM65.8%

9 PM–5 AM—

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.

Why BOS → PHL runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft53.1%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline31.0%

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

Air traffic control13.8%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather2.1%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security<0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BOS → PHL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BOS → 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 88.8% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 65.8%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of BOS to PHL: 3.9 times the normal rate at BOS and 4.3 times at PHL. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: BOS 5.3% against 1.4%, PHL 6.5% against 1.5%. Flights that did leave BOS in bad weather arrived on time 65.1% of the time, against 79.7% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from BOS and PHL in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	BOS	PHL
Cancelled in bad weather	5.3%	6.5%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.4%	1.5%
Arrived on time, bad weather	65.1%	64.3%
Arrived on time, normal hours	79.7%	78.2%
Departures in bad weather	60,840	32,038

Of the carriers on this route, American Airlines (4.7% cancelled against 5.5% for the other carriers at BOS) cancelled the fewest departures from BOS in bad weather and Republic Airways (8.1% cancelled against 5.0% for the other carriers at BOS) the most. One more carrier flies this route but has too few bad-weather departures from BOS to compare.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at BOS

All departures from BOS

Cancellation rates in bad weather at BOS for the airlines that fly BOS to PHL, against the other carriers at BOS in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
American Airlines	6,964	4.7%below the others	5.5%
JetBlue	17,332	5.4%about level	5.1%
Republic Airways	12,581	8.1%above the others	5.0%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from BOS and PHL, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from BOS on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: BOS (airlines), PHL, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
American Airlines	7,373	77.0%	2.27%	-9 min	10.3%
Republic Airways	4,483	82.0%	2.48%	-10 min	6.9%
JetBlue	2,901	76.5%	2.21%	-9 min	9.9%
Frontier Airlines	725	74.6%	2.07%	-5 min	8.3%

American Airlines flew 47.6% of the 15,482 flights listed.

Republic Airways arrived on time 7.4 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.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
B61159 JetBlue	8:05 AM	651	86.2%

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon75.9%

Tue80.9%

Wed82.0%

Thu75.7%

Fri76.4%

Sat81.9%

Sun76.0%

Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 6.3 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 14.6 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.5% against 77.7% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 15,483 BOS → 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

BOS airport PHL airport Return direction PHL → BOS

BOS→PHL

Right now

Route reliability

Why BOS → PHL flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why BOS → PHL runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at BOS

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology