Official US DOT on-time records · June 2025 to May 2026
How late is your route really?
On-time rates, cancellation rates and delay causes for 250 US routes, 50 airports and every reporting carrier, recomputed each month from 11.3 million flight records.
Historical statistics, not live flight status. For today’s departure, use your airline’s app.
The national picture
US domestic flying, June 2025 to May 2026
On time
75.9%
Of 11.0 million completed flights
Avg delay
53 min
Across delayed arrivals only
Cancelled
2.23%
Never operated at all
An hour or more late
8.6%
The share that breaks connections
Across 11.3 million domestic flights, 75.9% arrived inside the Department of Transportation's 15-minute window. The flights that missed it were late by 53 minutes on average, and 8.6% of all arrivals landed a full hour or more behind schedule. That last figure is the one that ends trips.
Among the majors, Hawaiian Airlines led at 86.7% and Frontier Airlines trailed at 69.3%. Among large airports, Salt Lake City ran best at 82.1% and Newark worst at 70.7%. Neither ranking transfers cleanly to a single route, which is why this site scores routes one at a time.
Busiest routes
Start with one of these
The twelve highest-volume routes in the data, each with its own grade. Volume is not quality: some of the busiest routes in the country are also among the least punctual, because they connect the airports where congestion is worst.
- ATL → LAXAtlanta to Los Angeles · 70.6% on timeC−
- EWR → DFWNewark to Dallas-Fort Worth · 67.1% on timeC
- MIA → ORDMiami to Chicago · 70.7% on timeC
- DFW → ATLDallas-Fort Worth to Atlanta · 80.3% on timeB
- LAX → DFWLos Angeles to Dallas-Fort Worth · 70.1% on timeC
- ORD → SFOChicago to San Francisco · 69.9% on timeC−
- DFW → CLTDallas-Fort Worth to Charlotte · 77.2% on timeB
- ATL → EWRAtlanta to Newark · 68.8% on timeC
- LAS → DFWLas Vegas to Dallas-Fort Worth · 76.6% on timeB
- DFW → LGADallas-Fort Worth to New York · 77.4% on timeB+
- DTW → ORDDetroit to Chicago · 77.1% on timeB−
- DFW → LAXDallas-Fort Worth to Los Angeles · 74.6% on timeC
Guides
What the data says about booking
The best time of day to fly, according to 11.3 million flight records
Departures between 5am–8am arrive on time 81.3% of the time. The 5pm–8pm window manages 69.5%. Here is why the gap exists and how to use it.
4 min read
Late aircraft, weather, or the airline: what actually causes US flight delays
Carriers charge 34% of delay minutes to a late-arriving aircraft and only 8% to extreme weather. The categories are not what most travellers assume.
5 min read
The 15-minute rule: what "on time" officially means
A flight that arrives 14 minutes late is on time. One that arrives 16 minutes late is not. The threshold shapes every on-time statistic published in the US, including the ones on this site.
4 min read
What this is
Statistics, not status
Every figure here is recomputed from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics on-time performance database, the same flight-level filings the DOT publishes each month. Nothing is estimated, modelled or bought from a third party. The methodology page states the definitions, the thresholds and the limitations in full.
This site is not a flight tracker. It holds no real-time data and never will. It answers a narrower question: over the last 12 months, how often did this route, this airport or this airline actually deliver the schedule it sold.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.