OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Phoenix to Des Moines

1,149 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on PHX–DSM arrive on time 78% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate78%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay35 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled1.7%of scheduled flights

based on 781 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • SkyWest Airlinesbest
    On-time84%
    Medianon time
    p9020 min
    Cancel1.3%
    Flights311
  • American Airlines
    On-time75%
    Medianon time
    p9035 min
    Cancel2.0%
    Flights440
  • Southwest Airlines
    On-time60%
    Median5 min
    p9055 min
    Cancel0.0%
    Flights30

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline43%
  • Weather3%
  • Air traffic (NAS)14%
  • Late aircraft39%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Airline.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline0%
  • Weather92%
  • Air traffic (NAS)8%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 13 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly PHX → DSM

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 86% on time.

  • Mornings86% on time · p90 15 min · 828 flights
  • Middays82% on time · p90 25 min · 1,061 flights
  • Afternoons77% on time · p90 35 min · 138 flights · limited
  • Overnights73% on time · p90 55 min · 215 flights
  • Evenings69% on time · p90 60 min · 676 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 76% to 82% on time.

  • Tuesdays82% on time · p90 40 min · 365 flights
  • Wednesdays81% on time · p90 25 min · 374 flights
  • Thursdays81% on time · p90 35 min · 449 flights
  • Fridays80% on time · p90 30 min · 445 flights
  • Sundays79% on time · p90 35 min · 461 flights
  • Saturdays77% on time · p90 35 min · 381 flights
  • Mondays76% on time · p90 40 min · 443 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.