St. Petersburg, FL

What the Data Says About PIE

St. Petersburg, FL in St. Petersburg, Florida handled 96,149 flights in the Bureau of Transportation Statistics dataset between 2020 and 2025, posting a 76.7% on-time departure rate. Of those flights, 22,444 experienced delays, 1,615 were cancelled, and 165 were diverted. The cancellation rate works out to 1.68%, the diversion rate to 0.17%, and the average delay when departures run late is 80.5 minutes. These figures are the baseline for comparing PIE against other airports in the same state and nationally.

Breaking down what drives delays at PIE, Late Aircraft leads the pack. Late Aircraft accounts for 40.3% of total delay minutes, followed by Carrier at 26.8% and NAS (National Aviation System) at 19.2%. Weather contributes 13.3% of delay minutes at this airport, while security holds the smallest share at 0.5%. Travelers often overestimate the weather share; the BTS categorization shows late-arriving aircraft and carrier operations as the larger contributors.

Seasonally, January runs the cleanest at PIE with a 92.5% on-time rate, while July is the roughest at 86.1% — a 6-point swing between best and worst month. Volume peaks in July, when average flights hit 1,732. The busiest route from PIE is to AVL (Asheville), with 2,202 flights at a 73.7% on-time rate. Combine these numbers — 76.7% on-time, 80.5-minute average delay, 1.68% cancellation rate — and you have a concrete picture of departure reliability at St. Petersburg, FL.