Route profile
BWI→RSW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Baltimore to Fort Myers, 919 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 31% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,419 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
BWI → RSW arrives on time 74.2% of the time; the return trip, RSW → BWI, arrives on time 80.9% of the time, a 6.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
BWI → RSW spends 19.5 minutes on the ground on a 919-mile trip: 15.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BWI and 4.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at RSW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where BWI to RSW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BWI to RSW struggles most at 8 AM: 83.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 3.4 points behind the 86.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 2.9 points.
Thursday is the day BWI to RSW slips furthest against routes of similar length, 70.8% on time where they average 76.5%, 5.7 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 6 points.
In December, BWI to RSW runs 7.5 points below routes of similar length, 71.1% on time to 78.6%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on BWI to RSW arrive on time 74.2% of the time, 2.1 points below the 76.3% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 3.2 points.
BWI to RSW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 83.0% | routes of similar length | 86.4% | −3.4 pts | 628 here, 192,880 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 70.8% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | −5.7 pts | 637 here, 420,144 there |
| Month: December | 71.1% | routes of similar length | 78.6% | −7.5 pts | 381 here, 235,864 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 74.2% | routes of similar length | 76.3% | −2.1 pts | 4,324 here, 768,522 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 919 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 BWI → RSW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
BWI → RSW cancelled 72 of 4,419 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 61. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 66.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 92 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 72 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.
48 cancellations, 66.7% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
14 cancellations, 19.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
10 cancellations, 13.9% 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.
72 coded cancellations were recorded on BWI → RSW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
47 min late
against a median of 1 min early
Percentiles over 4,419 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at RSW after arriving from BWI.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 46% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | High risk |
| 90 min | 7.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.4% | 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 1.63% of the time and diverts 0.27% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,335 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 47 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,419 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BWI → RSW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 86.4% of the time, against 64.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 21.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 90.3% on time from 388 flights
- 7 AM: 91.6% on time from 131 flights
- 8 AM: 83.0% on time from 637 flights
- 9 AM: 81.3% on time from 185 flights
- 10 AM: 81.2% on time from 236 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 79.5% on time from 211 flights
- 1 PM: 76.9% on time from 251 flights
- 2 PM: 73.2% on time from 359 flights
- 3 PM: 68.1% on time from 308 flights
- 4 PM: 67.8% on time from 235 flights
- 5 PM: 62.9% on time from 229 flights
- 6 PM: 64.1% on time from 329 flights
- 7 PM: 66.2% on time from 399 flights
- 8 PM: 64.0% on time from 352 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why BWI → RSW 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 → RSW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BWI → RSW, at 37.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 86.4% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 64.9%.
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 | 4,408 | 74.2% | 1.63% | -1 min | 8.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 6.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 72.0%
- Feb: 78.4%
- Mar: 71.1%
- Apr: 81.1%
- May: 75.3%
- Jun: 67.5%
- Jul: 62.5%
- Aug: 71.6%
- Sep: 82.2%
- Oct: 78.5%
- Nov: 83.4%
- Dec: 71.1%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 20.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 58.7% from 152 flights
- August 2023: 71.6% from 121 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (109)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (115)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (119)
- December 2023: 74.4% from 126 flights
- January 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- March 2024: 65.3% from 148 flights
- April 2024: 79.7% from 123 flights
- May 2024: 74.2% from 120 flights
- June 2024: too few flights to score (111)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (95)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (106)
- November 2024: 92.5% from 120 flights
- December 2024: 74.4% from 126 flights
- January 2025: 72.1% from 126 flights
- February 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- March 2025: 82.9% from 135 flights
- April 2025: 84.3% from 140 flights
- May 2025: 71.2% from 139 flights
- June 2025: too few flights to score (112)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- November 2025: 79.5% from 123 flights
- December 2025: 64.9% from 134 flights
- January 2026: 78.7% from 126 flights
- February 2026: 82.8% from 127 flights
- March 2026: 66.4% from 148 flights
- April 2026: 78.9% from 134 flights
- May 2026: 80.5% from 136 flights
- June 2026: too few flights to score (94)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (92)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.5% against 76.9% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,419 BWI → RSW 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