Southwest Airlines in September 2023

79.5%arrived on time

BTS: A flight is counted as on time if it arrived less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. Only carriers with at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue report.

In September 2023, Southwest Airlines (WN) reported 117,870 scheduled domestic flights. 79.5% arrived on time, 0.6% were cancelled and 0.2% diverted.

All reporting carriers together recorded 80.1% on time and 1.2% cancelled that month, so the carrier was 0.6 points below the combined figure.

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category that month, late-arriving aircraft 49%, air carrier 28% and national aviation system 19%.

On time 79.5%
Arrived 15+ minutes late 19.7%
Cancelled 0.6%
Diverted 0.2%

Every scheduled domestic flight reported by Southwest Airlines in September 2023.

September 2023 against a year earlier, the carrier's year and all carriers

Measure	Sep 2023	Year earlier	WN, 12 months to Jul 2026	All carriers, Sep 2023
Arrived on time	79.5%	—	75.5%	80.1%
Departed on time	77.5%	—	71.2%	80.5%
Cancelled	0.6%	—	0.9%	1.2%
Average arrival delay	4.9 min	—	6.8 min	5.4 min
Scheduled flights a day	3,929	—	3,808	18,978
Scheduled flights	117,870	—	1,389,951	569,338

107 airports and 1,651 routes had WN flights that month.

Busiest airports that month

Airport	Departures	On time	Avg arrival delay	Cancelled
DEN Denver	8,022	71.6%	10.2 min	0.4%
LAS Las Vegas	7,346	71.4%	9.8 min	1.2%
MDW Chicago	6,361	75.5%	8.0 min	0.4%
DAL Dallas	5,912	78.9%	5.2 min	0.4%
BWI Baltimore	5,905	73.0%	9.7 min	1.5%
PHX Phoenix	5,155	82.2%	2.3 min	0.3%
HOU Houston	4,127	80.1%	5.3 min	0.4%
BNA Nashville	3,956	82.3%	2.0 min	0.5%
STL St. Louis	3,363	79.3%	6.1 min	0.4%
OAK Oakland	3,190	81.5%	3.0 min	0.3%
AUS Austin	3,183	78.0%	6.6 min	0.5%
ATL Atlanta	3,062	80.7%	4.2 min	0.4%
SAN San Diego	2,954	81.6%	2.1 min	0.6%
MCO Orlando	2,845	73.6%	11.6 min	0.4%
SJC San Jose	2,756	82.3%	2.3 min	0.5%

By scheduled departure hour

On-time share:under 62%6270768288% and over

Share of WN flights that arrived on time, by scheduled departure hour (local time at each origin), September 2023.

Delay causes

BTS cause category	Share of delay minutes	All carriers, Sep 2023	Minutes
Air carrier	28.3%	36.4%	319,884
Late-arriving aircraft	49.0%	38.3%	553,721
National Aviation System	19.2%	19.9%	216,367
Extreme weather	3.2%	5.1%	35,781
Security	0.3%	0.2%	3,419

1,129,172 delay minutes on 23,230 flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late and carried a cause report. Carriers assign the categories; see what each category means.

Questions and answers

What share of Southwest Airlines flights were on time in September 2023?

79.5% of 117,870 scheduled domestic flights arrived less than 15 minutes late; all reporting carriers together recorded 80.1% that month.

How does that compare with a year earlier?

September 2022 is outside the 36 months on file, or the carrier did not report that month.

Provenance

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance, file for September 2023; public domain. Domestic scheduled flights, totals and averages only. The site's data runs through July 2026. Full record for Southwest Airlines · methodology · corrections.