Flights by scheduled departure hour, 12 months to July 2026
The hour from 7 am to 8 am had the most scheduled flights in the 12 months to July 2026: 522,173, 7.4% of all flights.
The three hours with the most flights had 21.2% of them.
18 hours had 1% of the flights or more in the 12 months to July 2026.
The share that arrived on time ran from 65.9% to 90.1% across these hours.
The lowest share, 65.9%, is for flights scheduled to leave from 7 pm to 8 pm.
The highest share, 90.1%, is for flights scheduled to leave from 5 am to 6 am.
A flight is considered on-time when it arrives less than 15 minutes after its published arrival time. This database contains scheduled and actual departure and arrival times reported by certified U.S. air carriers that account for at least half of one percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenues.
In plain words: a flight that arrives 14 minutes late is on time. A flight that arrives 15 minutes late is late. This site counts a cancelled flight and a diverted flight as not on time. The data holds domestic flights only.
Hours of the day
| Departure hour | Flights | Share of flights | Left on time | Arrived on time | Cancelled |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 am to 1 am | 10,377 | 0.1% | 77.3% | 81.4% | 1.8% |
| 1 am to 2 am | 3,443 | 0.0% | 76.9% | 79.1% | 2.6% |
| 2 am to 3 am | 1,272 | 0.0% | 77.0% | 78.2% | 1.6% |
| 3 am to 4 am | 670 | 0.0% | 76.0% | 78.2% | 2.4% |
| 4 am to 5 am | 170 | 0.0% | 81.2% | 80.0% | 2.9% |
| 5 am to 6 am | 191,627 | 2.7% | 91.1% | 90.1% | 1.6% |
| 6 am to 7 am | 483,365 | 6.9% | 90.3% | 88.3% | 1.9% |
| 7 am to 8 am | 522,173 | 7.4% | 88.6% | 85.9% | 1.5% |
| 8 am to 9 am | 487,005 | 6.9% | 86.4% | 84.1% | 1.5% |
| 9 am to 10 am | 398,551 | 5.7% | 83.7% | 82.4% | 1.4% |
| 10 am to 11 am | 447,005 | 6.3% | 81.0% | 80.7% | 1.5% |
| 11 am to 12 pm | 433,531 | 6.2% | 78.8% | 78.9% | 1.4% |
| 12 pm to 1 pm | 422,954 | 6.0% | 76.4% | 76.8% | 1.5% |
| 1 pm to 2 pm | 421,379 | 6.0% | 74.8% | 75.4% | 1.5% |
| 2 pm to 3 pm | 399,425 | 5.7% | 71.9% | 72.4% | 1.7% |
| 3 pm to 4 pm | 407,212 | 5.8% | 70.3% | 70.8% | 1.8% |
| 4 pm to 5 pm | 405,547 | 5.8% | 68.4% | 68.6% | 1.9% |
| 5 pm to 6 pm | 447,513 | 6.4% | 67.6% | 67.6% | 2.2% |
| 6 pm to 7 pm | 415,433 | 5.9% | 65.4% | 66.4% | 2.3% |
| 7 pm to 8 pm | 383,094 | 5.4% | 64.3% | 65.9% | 2.5% |
| 8 pm to 9 pm | 308,848 | 4.4% | 63.5% | 66.0% | 2.4% |
| 9 pm to 10 pm | 238,295 | 3.4% | 66.1% | 68.7% | 2.6% |
| 10 pm to 11 pm | 155,896 | 2.2% | 67.1% | 69.8% | 2.7% |
| 11 pm to 12 am | 59,073 | 0.8% | 75.8% | 78.7% | 1.6% |
How the figures were made
The hour is the hour of the scheduled departure time in local time at the departure airport. A flight that leaves late stays in the hour in which it was scheduled to leave.
On-time share is the share of scheduled flights that arrived less than 15 minutes after the scheduled time. A cancelled flight and a diverted flight count as not on time.
The comparison in the sentences leaves out the hours with less than 1% of the flights. The table shows the figures of those hours, which rest on fewer flights.
A program makes this page from the BTS files with fixed sentence rules. How the figures are made. BTS and TSA files.
In earlier editions
This table is in the edition of October 2026, the first edition. Each month adds an edition that keeps the first rows of the table as they were.