Route profile
PHL→MIA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Philadelphia to Miami, 1,013 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 25% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,876 flights. How this is calculated
PHL → MIA arrives on time 76.2% of the time; the return trip, MIA → PHL, arrives on time 74.2% of the time, a 2.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PHL → MIA spends 30.9 minutes on the ground on a 1,013-mile trip: 21.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PHL and 10.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at MIA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where PHL to MIA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PHL to MIA is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 77.5% arrive on time, 9.7 points ahead of the 67.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.8 points.
PHL to MIA struggles most at 5 PM: 57.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9.7 points behind the 67.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.1 points.
In August, PHL to MIA runs 8.6 points below routes of similar length, 65.7% on time to 74.3%. Against all other routes the gap is 10.8 points.
Frontier Airlines’ flights on PHL to MIA arrive on time 66.4% of the time, 6.7 points below the 73.1% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 4.9 points.
Spirit Airlines does better on PHL to MIA than on its routes of similar length: 79.0% on time here, 73.9% there, 5.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.7 points.
PHL to MIA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 77.5% | routes of similar length | 67.8% | +9.7 pts | 262 here, 154,444 there |
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 57.7% | routes of similar length | 67.4% | −9.7 pts | 736 here, 180,228 there |
| Month: August | 65.7% | routes of similar length | 74.3% | −8.6 pts | 793 here, 235,757 there |
| Airline: Frontier Airlines | 66.4% | routes of similar length | 73.1% | −6.7 pts | 1,196 here, 147,941 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 79.0% | routes of similar length | 73.9% | +5.1 pts | 849 here, 174,599 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 1,013 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 PHL → MIA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
PHL → MIA cancelled 181 of 9,876 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 55. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 83.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 65 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 181 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.
151 cancellations, 83.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
17 cancellations, 9.4% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
13 cancellations, 7.2% 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.
181 coded cancellations were recorded on PHL → MIA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
55 min late
against a median of 8 min early
PHL → MIA has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 8 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 9,876 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MIA after arriving from PHL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 37% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.0% | 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 1.83% of the time and diverts 0.28% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,667 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 55 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,876 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PHL → MIA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 84.7% of the time, against 68.9% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 15.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 90.5% on time from 913 flights
- 6 AM: 85.5% on time from 970 flights
- 7 AM: 80.1% on time from 359 flights
- 8 AM: 81.2% on time from 1,214 flights
- 9 AM: 76.1% on time from 313 flights
- 10 AM: 79.7% on time from 948 flights
- 11 AM: 71.0% on time from 438 flights
- 12 PM: 70.7% on time from 199 flights
- 1 PM: 73.7% on time from 680 flights
- 2 PM: 68.1% on time from 235 flights
- 3 PM: 75.5% on time from 899 flights
- 4 PM: 77.5% on time from 267 flights
- 5 PM: 57.7% on time from 758 flights
- 6 PM: 67.3% on time from 1,062 flights
- 7 PM: 73.6% on time from 243 flights
- 8 PM: 73.7% on time from 190 flights
- 9 PM: 68.0% on time from 130 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why PHL → MIA 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 PHL → MIA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PHL → MIA, at 37.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 84.7% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 68.9%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 7,788 | 77.4% | 1.82% | -8 min | 8.3% |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,221 | 66.4% | 1.88% | -4 min | 16.4% |
| Spirit Airlines | 867 | 79.0% | 1.85% | -12 min | 7.4% |
American Airlines flew 78.9% of the 9,876 flights listed.
Spirit Airlines arrived on time 12.6 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.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 74.2%
- Feb: 81.0%
- Mar: 76.9%
- Apr: 82.5%
- May: 78.5%
- Jun: 73.2%
- Jul: 65.0%
- Aug: 65.7%
- Sep: 78.5%
- Oct: 81.3%
- Nov: 86.1%
- Dec: 75.2%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 21.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 64.3% from 279 flights
- August 2023: 69.1% from 286 flights
- September 2023: 71.4% from 258 flights
- October 2023: 81.6% from 288 flights
- November 2023: 86.4% from 257 flights
- December 2023: 75.6% from 254 flights
- January 2024: 70.6% from 265 flights
- February 2024: 82.6% from 265 flights
- March 2024: 74.9% from 303 flights
- April 2024: 85.9% from 282 flights
- May 2024: 80.1% from 257 flights
- June 2024: 76.1% from 240 flights
- July 2024: 70.8% from 247 flights
- August 2024: 58.8% from 271 flights
- September 2024: 84.8% from 220 flights
- October 2024: 82.3% from 240 flights
- November 2024: 90.7% from 246 flights
- December 2024: 73.6% from 291 flights
- January 2025: 73.3% from 287 flights
- February 2025: 80.5% from 265 flights
- March 2025: 76.1% from 282 flights
- April 2025: 81.7% from 318 flights
- May 2025: 71.2% from 277 flights
- June 2025: 67.1% from 231 flights
- July 2025: 58.7% from 220 flights
- August 2025: 68.4% from 269 flights
- September 2025: 80.4% from 217 flights
- October 2025: 80.0% from 246 flights
- November 2025: 81.3% from 256 flights
- December 2025: 76.4% from 277 flights
- January 2026: 78.9% from 278 flights
- February 2026: 79.8% from 272 flights
- March 2026: 79.8% from 293 flights
- April 2026: 80.0% from 295 flights
- May 2026: 84.8% from 246 flights
- June 2026: 75.8% from 289 flights
- July 2026: 65.4% from 309 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.3% against 75.0% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,876 PHL → MIA 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