Route profile
SEA→FLL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Seattle to Fort Lauderdale, 2,717 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 2,712 flights. How this is calculated
SEA → FLL arrives on time 81.2% of the time; the return trip, FLL → SEA, arrives on time 72.7% of the time, an 8.4-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SEA → FLL spends 33.2 minutes on the ground on a 2,717-mile trip: 23.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SEA and 9.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at FLL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 96% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Alaska Airlines (81.6% on time) and Delta Air Lines (80.6%) are close together here.
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 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SEA to FLL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SEA to FLL struggles most at 11 AM: 65.2% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.2 points behind the 77.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.8 points.
SEA to FLL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 11 PM: 91.1% arrive on time, 11.4 points ahead of the 79.7% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12 points.
SEA to FLL holds up on Wednesdays better than routes of similar length do: 84.7% on time to their 79.8%, a 4.9 points lead.
June is kinder to SEA to FLL than to routes of similar length: 83.7% on time against 74.4%, 9.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 11 points.
Alaska Airlines does better on SEA to FLL than on its routes of similar length: 81.6% on time here, 75.9% there, 5.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.6 points.
SEA to FLL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 65.2% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | −12.2 pts | 181 here, 34,368 there |
| Hour: 11 PM departures | 91.1% | routes of similar length | 79.7% | +11.4 pts | 135 here, 33,503 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 84.7% | routes of similar length | 79.8% | +4.9 pts | 365 here, 98,809 there |
| Month: June | 83.7% | routes of similar length | 74.4% | +9.3 pts | 178 here, 62,613 there |
| Airline: Alaska Airlines | 81.6% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +5.7 pts | 1,558 here, 140,112 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 2,717 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
29 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 2,712 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at FLL after arriving from SEA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 36% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.4% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.5% | Low 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 1.40% 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 2,662 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 29 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,712 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SEA → FLL flights departing 9 PM–5 AM arrived on time 85.3% of the time, against 68.6% for 9 AM–12 PM departures, a gap of 16.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 86.3% on time from 495 flights
- 8 AM: 79.4% on time from 1,198 flights
- 9 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 65.2% on time from 188 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 80.2% on time from 185 flights
- 2 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 81.9% on time from 193 flights
- 10 PM: too few flights to score
- 11 PM: 91.1% on time from 146 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SEA → FLL runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SEA → FLL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 1,589 | 81.6% | 1.64% | -7 min | 4.3% |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,123 | 80.6% | 1.07% | -7 min | 5.3% |
Alaska Airlines flew 58.6% of the 2,712 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
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 8.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 77.5%
- Feb: 82.3%
- Mar: 77.4%
- Apr: 78.9%
- May: 86.3%
- Jun: 83.7%
- Jul: 78.3%
- Aug: 79.2%
- Sep: 89.3%
- Oct: 88.8%
- Nov: 83.2%
- Dec: 74.4%
December is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 14.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.9% against 81.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,712 SEA → 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