Route profile
PHL→PHX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Philadelphia to Phoenix, 2,075 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 61% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,466 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PHL → PHX arrives on time 81.4% of the time; the return trip, PHX → PHL, arrives on time 84.2% of the time, a 2.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PHL → PHX spends 28.9 minutes on the ground on a 2,075-mile trip: 21.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PHL and 7.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at PHX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 94% of 4,467 comparable routes.
84.1% on time on the best day (Tuesday) against 79.8% on the worst (Friday).
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where PHL to PHX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PHL to PHX struggles most at 9 PM: 67.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 8.6 points behind the 76.5% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
PHL to PHX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 3 PM: 81.7% arrive on time, 7.5 points ahead of the 74.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.
PHL to PHX holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 80.2% on time to their 76.1%, a 4.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.4 points.
March is kinder to PHL to PHX than to routes of similar length: 90.5% on time against 78.7%, 11.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 12.6 points.
American Airlines does better on PHL to PHX than on its routes of similar length: 81.4% on time here, 78.2% there, 3.2 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
PHL to PHX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 67.9% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | −8.6 pts | 190 here, 39,228 there |
| Hour: 3 PM departures | 81.7% | routes of similar length | 74.2% | +7.5 pts | 627 here, 37,780 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 80.2% | routes of similar length | 76.1% | +4.1 pts | 1,058 here, 140,380 there |
| Month: March | 90.5% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | +11.8 pts | 613 here, 77,172 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 81.4% | routes of similar length | 78.2% | +3.2 pts | 7,354 here, 233,291 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 2,075 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 → PHX flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
PHL → PHX cancelled 89 of 7,466 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 84. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 80.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 104 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 89 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.
72 cancellations, 80.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
9 cancellations, 10.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
8 cancellations, 9.0% 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.
89 coded cancellations were recorded on PHL → PHX; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
37 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 7,466 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PHX after arriving from PHL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.8% | 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 1.19% 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 7,354 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 37 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,466 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PHL → PHX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.2% of the time, against 67.9% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 21.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 85.7% on time from 141 flights
- 7 AM: 89.0% on time from 981 flights
- 8 AM: 90.9% on time from 388 flights
- 9 AM: 85.7% on time from 682 flights
- 10 AM: 85.8% on time from 1,095 flights
- 11 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 77.7% on time from 987 flights
- 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 81.7% on time from 633 flights
- 4 PM: 74.0% on time from 205 flights
- 5 PM: 78.0% on time from 979 flights
- 6 PM: 76.0% on time from 737 flights
- 7 PM: 68.9% on time from 269 flights
- 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 67.9% on time from 195 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why PHL → PHX 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 → PHX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PHL → PHX, at 42.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.2% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 67.9%.
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 | 7,466 | 81.4% | 1.19% | -8 min | 6.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.4%
- Feb: 83.1%
- Mar: 90.5%
- Apr: 80.0%
- May: 80.8%
- Jun: 73.5%
- Jul: 70.3%
- Aug: 77.1%
- Sep: 84.7%
- Oct: 88.4%
- Nov: 89.6%
- Dec: 82.7%
July is historically the weakest month and March the strongest, a spread of 20.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 75.8% from 215 flights
- August 2023: 86.6% from 217 flights
- September 2023: 85.5% from 211 flights
- October 2023: 89.4% from 217 flights
- November 2023: 93.8% from 208 flights
- December 2023: 92.2% from 206 flights
- January 2024: 79.7% from 210 flights
- February 2024: 86.2% from 203 flights
- March 2024: 91.8% from 219 flights
- April 2024: 85.4% from 205 flights
- May 2024: 77.2% from 217 flights
- June 2024: 77.5% from 210 flights
- July 2024: 67.6% from 217 flights
- August 2024: 67.9% from 192 flights
- September 2024: 83.0% from 200 flights
- October 2024: 91.6% from 215 flights
- November 2024: 91.2% from 204 flights
- December 2024: 85.5% from 200 flights
- January 2025: 82.2% from 192 flights
- February 2025: 77.5% from 165 flights
- March 2025: 89.7% from 187 flights
- April 2025: 72.0% from 207 flights
- May 2025: 77.6% from 213 flights
- June 2025: 74.0% from 205 flights
- July 2025: 64.7% from 211 flights
- August 2025: 75.1% from 177 flights
- September 2025: 85.7% from 160 flights
- October 2025: 83.1% from 180 flights
- November 2025: 83.3% from 194 flights
- December 2025: 70.1% from 203 flights
- January 2026: 79.1% from 176 flights
- February 2026: 84.8% from 173 flights
- March 2026: 90.0% from 211 flights
- April 2026: 82.6% from 208 flights
- May 2026: 87.7% from 213 flights
- June 2026: 69.1% from 208 flights
- July 2026: 72.7% from 217 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.2% against 79.7% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,466 PHL → PHX 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