Route profile
BWI→FLL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale, 925 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 30% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 11,068 flights. How this is calculated
BWI → FLL arrives on time 75.0% of the time; the return trip, FLL → BWI, arrives on time 74.2% of the time.
BWI → FLL spends 21.6 minutes on the ground on a 925-mile trip: 15.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BWI and 6.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at FLL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Why BWI → FLL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
BWI → FLL cancelled 193 of 11,068 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 57. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 55.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 103 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 193 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.
107 cancellations, 55.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
48 cancellations, 24.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
38 cancellations, 19.7% 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.
193 coded cancellations were recorded on BWI → FLL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
50 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 11,068 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at FLL after arriving from BWI.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 24% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.9% | 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 1.74% of the time and diverts 0.31% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 10,841 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 50 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 11,068 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BWI → FLL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.3% of the time, against 63.5% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 23.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 89.7% on time from 1,866 flights
- 7 AM: 86.3% on time from 480 flights
- 8 AM: 81.8% on time from 855 flights
- 9 AM: 80.6% on time from 477 flights
- 10 AM: 75.0% on time from 542 flights
- 11 AM: 75.8% on time from 622 flights
- 12 PM: 79.9% on time from 465 flights
- 1 PM: 75.9% on time from 485 flights
- 2 PM: 75.3% on time from 659 flights
- 3 PM: 66.1% on time from 570 flights
- 4 PM: 63.1% on time from 689 flights
- 5 PM: 61.5% on time from 653 flights
- 6 PM: 64.1% on time from 716 flights
- 7 PM: 69.8% on time from 643 flights
- 8 PM: 62.6% on time from 745 flights
- 9 PM: 64.4% on time from 388 flights
- 10 PM: 70.5% on time from 125 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why BWI → FLL 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 BWI → FLL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BWI → FLL, at 34.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.3% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 63.5%.
How this route holds up in bad weather
July 2023 – July 2026
The harder-hit end is the one the flight leaves from, where a cancellation keeps it from departing at all. Bad weather cancels 4.8 times the normal rate at BWI against 2.1 times at FLL. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: BWI 4.7% against 1.0%, FLL 3.3% against 1.6%. Flights that did leave FLL in bad weather arrived on time 54.6% of the time, against 73.3% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | BWI | FLL |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 4.7% | 3.3% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.0% | 1.6% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 65.5% | 54.6% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 77.5% | 73.3% |
| Departures in bad weather | 30,451 | 13,418 |
None of the 2 carriers on this route stood clearly apart from the other carriers at BWI in bad weather.
This route’s airlines in bad weather at BWI
All departures from BWI| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 22,658 | 5.1%about level | 4.9% |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,603 | 4.6%about level | 4.1% |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from BWI and FLL, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from BWI on every route.
Weather source and limits. In full: BWI (airlines), FLL, 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.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 7,673 | 74.2% | 1.38% | -3 min | 8.1% |
| Spirit Airlines | 3,162 | 77.9% | 2.34% | -7 min | 8.2% |
Southwest Airlines flew 70.8% of the 10,835 flights listed.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 3.7 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Washington to Miami
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCA→MIA Washington to Miami | 11,971 | 77.2% | 2.09% | -9 min | 55 |
| BWI→FLL this route Baltimore to Fort Lauderdale | 11,068 | 75.0% | 1.74% | -4 min | 58 |
Flying to FLL from the Washington area? Compare BWI, DCA, IAD for FLL, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 72.6%
- Feb: 83.1%
- Mar: 69.7%
- Apr: 81.6%
- May: 74.6%
- Jun: 69.2%
- Jul: 63.0%
- Aug: 70.7%
- Sep: 81.2%
- Oct: 83.6%
- Nov: 83.5%
- Dec: 70.9%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 20.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 55.2% from 361 flights
- August 2023: 68.0% from 352 flights
- September 2023: 75.4% from 289 flights
- October 2023: 84.0% from 341 flights
- November 2023: 81.3% from 348 flights
- December 2023: 72.1% from 362 flights
- January 2024: 64.2% from 342 flights
- February 2024: 84.3% from 320 flights
- March 2024: 63.8% from 362 flights
- April 2024: 79.9% from 343 flights
- May 2024: 72.1% from 343 flights
- June 2024: 71.0% from 346 flights
- July 2024: 61.2% from 352 flights
- August 2024: 65.3% from 314 flights
- September 2024: 84.6% from 287 flights
- October 2024: 84.4% from 297 flights
- November 2024: 89.7% from 291 flights
- December 2024: 80.1% from 289 flights
- January 2025: 78.0% from 325 flights
- February 2025: 83.3% from 280 flights
- March 2025: 76.0% from 308 flights
- April 2025: 86.4% from 317 flights
- May 2025: 77.4% from 275 flights
- June 2025: 65.3% from 243 flights
- July 2025: 73.2% from 246 flights
- August 2025: 81.1% from 244 flights
- September 2025: 84.1% from 236 flights
- October 2025: 82.0% from 267 flights
- November 2025: 79.5% from 263 flights
- December 2025: 59.6% from 283 flights
- January 2026: 76.8% from 295 flights
- February 2026: 81.5% from 283 flights
- March 2026: 70.4% from 305 flights
- April 2026: 78.2% from 286 flights
- May 2026: 75.1% from 214 flights
- June 2026: 71.3% from 186 flights
- July 2026: 66.5% from 273 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.4% against 78.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 11,068 BWI → FLL 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