Route profile
PHX→STL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Phoenix to St. Louis, 1,262 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 74% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,023 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PHX → STL arrives on time 79.5% of the time; the return trip, STL → PHX, arrives on time 77.8% of the time.
PHX → STL spends 19.9 minutes on the ground on a 1,262-mile trip: 13.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PHX and 6.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at STL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where PHX to STL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PHX to STL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 78.5% arrive on time, 12.4 points ahead of the 66.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.7 points.
PHX to STL struggles most at 8 PM: 55.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9.9 points behind the 65.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.9 points.
PHX to STL holds up on Wednesdays better than routes of similar length do: 84.2% on time to their 79.8%, a 4.4 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 3.4 points.
February is kinder to PHX to STL than to routes of similar length: 86.6% on time against 80.8%, 5.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5.2 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on PHX to STL than on its routes of similar length: 79.8% on time here, 75.7% there, 4.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 2.4 points.
PHX to STL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 78.5% | routes of similar length | 66.1% | +12.4 pts | 697 here, 105,954 there |
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 55.5% | routes of similar length | 65.4% | −9.9 pts | 443 here, 77,987 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 84.2% | routes of similar length | 79.8% | +4.4 pts | 987 here, 263,211 there |
| Month: February | 86.6% | routes of similar length | 80.8% | +5.8 pts | 552 here, 140,928 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 79.8% | routes of similar length | 75.7% | +4.1 pts | 4,725 here, 396,599 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 1,262 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
36 min late
against a median of 3 min early
Percentiles over 7,023 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at STL after arriving from PHX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.0% | 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 0.43% of the time and diverts 0.44% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,962 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 36 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,023 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PHX → STL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.6% of the time, against 70.1% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 22.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 94.7% on time from 646 flights
- 6 AM: 97.0% on time from 374 flights
- 7 AM: 95.7% on time from 210 flights
- 8 AM: 86.8% on time from 635 flights
- 9 AM: 86.0% on time from 502 flights
- 10 AM: 84.5% on time from 234 flights
- 11 AM: 80.5% on time from 215 flights
- 12 PM: 82.3% on time from 581 flights
- 1 PM: 77.7% on time from 468 flights
- 2 PM: 67.6% on time from 239 flights
- 3 PM: 79.1% on time from 207 flights
- 4 PM: 64.3% on time from 437 flights
- 5 PM: 72.7% on time from 256 flights
- 6 PM: 71.1% on time from 829 flights
- 7 PM: 78.5% on time from 704 flights
- 8 PM: 55.5% on time from 450 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why PHX → STL 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 PHX → STL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PHX → STL, at 51.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.6% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 70.1%.
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 | 4,767 | 79.8% | 0.42% | -3 min | 4.6% |
| American Airlines | 1,874 | 77.5% | 0.48% | -6 min | 8.6% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 204 | 86.3% | 0.00% | -5 min | 1.0% |
Southwest Airlines flew 69.6% of the 6,845 flights listed.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 8.8 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA890 American Airlines | 6:56 PM | 837 | 73.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.8%
- Feb: 86.6%
- Mar: 78.0%
- Apr: 80.5%
- May: 79.8%
- Jun: 74.9%
- Jul: 69.4%
- Aug: 76.8%
- Sep: 85.8%
- Oct: 82.4%
- Nov: 82.2%
- Dec: 78.3%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 17.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 73.2% from 139 flights
- August 2023: 73.8% from 132 flights
- September 2023: 86.5% from 155 flights
- October 2023: 78.0% from 173 flights
- November 2023: 79.5% from 176 flights
- December 2023: 80.7% from 187 flights
- January 2024: 73.8% from 199 flights
- February 2024: 85.0% from 180 flights
- March 2024: 77.0% from 192 flights
- April 2024: 81.1% from 214 flights
- May 2024: 78.4% from 233 flights
- June 2024: 76.1% from 210 flights
- July 2024: 66.2% from 211 flights
- August 2024: 77.4% from 186 flights
- September 2024: 88.0% from 176 flights
- October 2024: 87.7% from 203 flights
- November 2024: 90.7% from 206 flights
- December 2024: 79.0% from 214 flights
- January 2025: 87.9% from 193 flights
- February 2025: 90.0% from 180 flights
- March 2025: 84.8% from 193 flights
- April 2025: 84.3% from 210 flights
- May 2025: 83.4% from 208 flights
- June 2025: 80.1% from 171 flights
- July 2025: 77.9% from 166 flights
- August 2025: 78.5% from 164 flights
- September 2025: 82.8% from 159 flights
- October 2025: 80.9% from 199 flights
- November 2025: 75.4% from 189 flights
- December 2025: 75.4% from 207 flights
- January 2026: 83.8% from 199 flights
- February 2026: 84.9% from 192 flights
- March 2026: 73.4% from 234 flights
- April 2026: 75.9% from 207 flights
- May 2026: 77.9% from 202 flights
- June 2026: 67.7% from 166 flights
- July 2026: 63.3% from 198 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.6% against 84.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 7.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,023 PHX → STL 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