PHL to RDU flight delays
Philadelphia, PA (PHL) Raleigh/Durham, NC (RDU) · 337 miles
2,560 flights · January 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
74.98%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
2.77%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
78 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
20 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Which airline you fly changes the odds here. Republic Airways arrived on time 11.9 points more often than American Airlines over the same period on the same route — same airports, same weather, same air traffic control. A gap that survives all of that is about how the two airlines are run.
Cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth pricing here: 2.77% of scheduled flights never operated. A late flight still gets you there. A cancelled one leaves you rebooking, and on a route with few daily departures that can mean losing a day.
The season swings this route hard. In May it ran 25.1 points more punctual than in December — a difference bigger than the one between the best and worst airlines on most routes. If the date is flexible, it is worth more than the carrier.
The route has been getting better. The later months in the record run 9 points more punctual than the earlier ones, which usually means a schedule that was too tight has been given more room.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over January 2025 – August 2026, Republic Airways arrived on time most often on PHL to RDU. American Airlines was late most often. Flights ran closest to schedule in May and worst in December.
Every airline on PHL to RDU
Ranked by how many flights each one operated. A carrier with fewer than 100 flights in the period is listed but not graded.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 1,105 | 71.31% | 2.35% | 81 min | D |
| PSA Airlines | 655 | 72.94% | 3.51% | 80 min | D |
| Frontier Airlines | 585 | 81.2% | 2.56% | 68 min | C |
| Republic Airways | 215 | 83.17% | 3.26% | 75 min | C |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
Other routes from Philadelphia
Common questions
Are flights from Philadelphia to Raleigh/Durham usually delayed?
74.98% of flights on the PHL to RDU route arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, so roughly 3 in every ten arrived late. That is about the same as the average route in this record.
Which airline is most on time from Philadelphia to Raleigh/Durham?
Republic Airways, at 83.17% on time across 215 flights. The least punctual on the route was American Airlines at 71.31%.
How often are PHL to RDU flights cancelled?
2.77% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 28 in every thousand. That is high enough that cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth planning around.
What is the best month to fly Philadelphia to Raleigh/Durham?
May, when 85.7% of flights arrived on time. The worst was December at 60.6%.
When PHL to RDU flights are late, how late are they?
About 78 minutes on average across the flights that arrived more than 15 minutes behind schedule.
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on PHL to RDU during January 2025 – August 2026, as reported by the airlines to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "On time" is the federal definition: arriving at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
A route's record is a description of the past, not a forecast. Weather, air traffic control and the aircraft's earlier flights that day drive most delays, and none of them are predictable from a historical rate. What the record does tell you is whether this route runs late more often than others, and which carrier on it has the better history — which is the part you can actually act on when you book.
Cancellations are counted separately from delays because they are a different problem for a traveller: a late flight still gets you there. How the grade is calculated →