Route profile
PIT→FLL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Pittsburgh to Fort Lauderdale, 994 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 39% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,341 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PIT → FLL arrives on time 77.3% of the time; the return trip, FLL → PIT, arrives on time 66.8% of the time, a 10.5-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
PIT → FLL spends 21.9 minutes on the ground on a 994-mile trip: 13.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PIT and 8.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at FLL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where PIT to FLL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PIT to FLL struggles most at 4 PM: 55.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.9 points behind the 68.0% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.6 points.
In January, PIT to FLL runs 9.1 points below routes of similar length, 68.4% on time to 77.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 10.7 points.
July is kinder to PIT to FLL than to routes of similar length: 76.1% on time against 68.2%, 7.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.4 points.
Spirit Airlines does better on PIT to FLL than on its routes of similar length: 76.6% on time here, 74.0% there, 2.6 points apart.
PIT to FLL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 55.1% | routes of similar length | 68.0% | −12.9 pts | 254 here, 160,034 there |
| Month: January | 68.4% | routes of similar length | 77.5% | −9.1 pts | 294 here, 233,320 there |
| Month: July | 76.1% | routes of similar length | 68.2% | +7.9 pts | 306 here, 332,883 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 76.6% | routes of similar length | 74.0% | +2.6 pts | 1,739 here, 174,979 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 994 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 PIT → FLL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
PIT → FLL cancelled 57 of 3,341 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 59. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 66.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 88 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 57 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.
38 cancellations, 66.7% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
14 cancellations, 24.6% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
5 cancellations, 8.8% 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.
57 coded cancellations were recorded on PIT → FLL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
46 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 3,341 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at FLL after arriving from PIT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.5% | 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 1.71% of the time and diverts 0.21% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,277 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 46 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,341 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PIT → FLL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 85.5% of the time, against 61.4% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 24.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 90.1% on time from 173 flights
- 6 AM: 83.7% on time from 791 flights
- 7 AM: 87.0% on time from 561 flights
- 8 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 80.6% on time from 132 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 77.1% on time from 171 flights
- 1 PM to 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 75.6% on time from 165 flights
- 4 PM: 55.1% on time from 256 flights
- 5 PM: 62.4% on time from 178 flights
- 6 PM: 72.4% on time from 170 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why PIT → 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 PIT → FLL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on PIT → FLL, at 32.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 85.5% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 61.4%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlines | 1,782 | 76.6% | 2.30% | -7 min | 8.5% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,287 | 77.2% | 0.85% | -4 min | 6.5% |
| JetBlue | 272 | 82.8% | 1.84% | -9 min | 7.9% |
Spirit Airlines flew 53.3% of the 3,341 flights listed. Spirit Airlines cancelled 2.30% of its flights here against 0.85% for Southwest Airlines.
JetBlue arrived on time 6.2 percentage points more often than Spirit Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 68.4%
- Feb: 77.5%
- Mar: 74.0%
- Apr: 80.1%
- May: 71.0%
- Jun: 78.9%
- Jul: 76.1%
- Aug: 80.0%
- Sep: 81.8%
- Oct: 85.4%
- Nov: 83.5%
- Dec: 72.6%
January is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 17.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (71)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (68)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (86)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (96)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (94)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (97)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (92)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (106)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (98)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (98)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (99)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (100)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (97)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (98)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (106)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (88)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (84)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (79)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (60)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (64)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (69)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (59)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (73)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (81)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (106)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- January 2026: 67.5% from 124 flights
- February 2026: too few flights to score (110)
- March 2026: 72.2% from 122 flights
- April 2026: too few flights to score (113)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (65)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (66)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (69)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.4% against 82.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,341 PIT → 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