Route profile
PIT→PHX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, 1,814 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 59% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,297 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PIT → PHX arrives on time 78.4% of the time; the return trip, PHX → PIT, arrives on time 76.6% of the time.
PIT → PHX spends 22.5 minutes on the ground on a 1,814-mile trip: 14.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PIT and 8.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at PHX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where PIT to PHX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PIT to PHX struggles most at 4 PM: 64.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.9 points behind the 71.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.7 points.
PIT to PHX holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 82.9% on time to their 75.3%, a 7.6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.1 points.
American Airlines does better on PIT to PHX than on its routes of similar length: 84.8% on time here, 77.1% there, 7.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 9.7 points.
PIT to PHX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 64.0% | routes of similar length | 71.9% | −7.9 pts | 253 here, 65,559 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 82.9% | routes of similar length | 75.3% | +7.6 pts | 321 here, 184,449 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 84.8% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | +7.7 pts | 1,051 here, 226,655 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 1,814 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
35 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 2,297 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PHX after arriving from PIT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.6% | 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 0.30% 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 2,280 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 35 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,297 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PIT → PHX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 85.6% of the time, against 67.8% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 17.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 85.3% on time from 957 flights
- 8 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 77.6% on time from 254 flights
- 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 69.8% on time from 262 flights
- 4 PM: 64.0% on time from 256 flights
- 5 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why PIT → PHX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 → PHX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 | 1,147 | 73.0% | 0.26% | 1 min | 4.8% |
| American Airlines | 1,056 | 84.8% | 0.28% | -8 min | 6.0% |
Southwest Airlines flew 52.1% of the 2,203 flights listed.
American Airlines arrived on time 11.8 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Sunday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 7.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.7%
- Feb: 79.3%
- Mar: 79.3%
- Apr: 76.5%
- May: 77.0%
- Jun: 73.6%
- Jul: 72.3%
- Aug: 79.1%
- Sep: 80.7%
- Oct: 87.4%
- Nov: 83.1%
- Dec: 79.2%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 15.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.2% against 79.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,297 PIT → 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