Route profile
ATL→CHS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Atlanta to Charleston, 259 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 71% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,166 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
ATL → CHS arrives on time 82.3% of the time; the return trip, CHS → ATL, arrives on time 87.9% of the time, a 5.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ATL → CHS spends 24.2 minutes on the ground on a 259-mile trip: 16.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ATL and 8.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at CHS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability here swings unusually widely by season, a wider month-to-month spread than 96% of 3,357 comparable routes.
91.8% on time in a typical November, against 65.2% in July.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 3,357 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where ATL to CHS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
ATL to CHS is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 84.4% arrive on time, 16.1 points ahead of the 68.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.8 points.
ATL to CHS holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 83.3% on time to their 76.4%, a 6.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.5 points.
November is kinder to ATL to CHS than to routes of similar length: 91.8% on time against 83.3%, 8.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
In July, ATL to CHS runs 6.2 points below routes of similar length, 65.2% on time to 71.4%. Against all other routes the gap is 4.5 points.
ATL to CHS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 84.4% | routes of similar length | 68.3% | +16.1 pts | 365 here, 42,651 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 83.3% | routes of similar length | 76.4% | +6.9 pts | 1,357 here, 102,359 there |
| Month: November | 91.8% | routes of similar length | 83.3% | +8.5 pts | 704 here, 54,464 there |
| Month: July | 65.2% | routes of similar length | 71.4% | −6.2 pts | 1,046 here, 74,785 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 259 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why ATL → CHS flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
ATL → CHS cancelled 123 of 9,166 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 75. The reason filed most often was the airline, 56.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 131 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 123 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
70 cancellations, 56.9% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
53 cancellations, 43.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
123 coded cancellations were recorded on ATL → CHS; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
32 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 9,166 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CHS after arriving from ATL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 36% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 2.8% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.34% of the time and diverts 0.15% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,029 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 32 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,166 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ATL → CHS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.7% of the time, against 76.6% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 14.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 90.4% on time from 966 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 88.6% on time from 1,086 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 86.3% on time from 1,036 flights
- 1 PM: 83.7% on time from 175 flights
- 2 PM: 84.1% on time from 752 flights
- 3 PM: 76.3% on time from 379 flights
- 4 PM: 80.4% on time from 722 flights
- 5 PM: 76.9% on time from 547 flights
- 6 PM: 84.4% on time from 369 flights
- 7 PM: 80.4% on time from 679 flights
- 8 PM: 70.9% on time from 546 flights
- 9 PM: 74.1% on time from 482 flights
- 10 PM: 79.1% on time from 1,036 flights
- 11 PM: 68.4% on time from 161 flights
Why ATL → CHS runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for ATL → CHS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 9,159 | 82.3% | 1.34% | -4 min | 5.3% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL3107 (10:10 AM) arrived on time 88.5% of the time, 11.5 points more often than DL2493 (7:25 PM) at 77.0%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.2%
- Feb: 84.5%
- Mar: 83.7%
- Apr: 86.3%
- May: 76.0%
- Jun: 79.7%
- Jul: 65.2%
- Aug: 80.9%
- Sep: 89.3%
- Oct: 90.2%
- Nov: 91.8%
- Dec: 86.3%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 26.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 69.2% from 253 flights
- August 2023: 79.7% from 230 flights
- September 2023: 86.1% from 232 flights
- October 2023: 92.4% from 237 flights
- November 2023: 95.4% from 217 flights
- December 2023: 93.9% from 212 flights
- January 2024: 82.3% from 203 flights
- February 2024: 88.9% from 189 flights
- March 2024: 85.5% from 227 flights
- April 2024: 85.9% from 227 flights
- May 2024: 72.7% from 232 flights
- June 2024: 82.8% from 250 flights
- July 2024: 55.5% from 256 flights
- August 2024: 78.7% from 249 flights
- September 2024: 88.4% from 241 flights
- October 2024: 92.1% from 252 flights
- November 2024: 92.1% from 229 flights
- December 2024: 87.8% from 237 flights
- January 2025: 81.6% from 214 flights
- February 2025: 81.8% from 204 flights
- March 2025: 86.2% from 256 flights
- April 2025: 81.9% from 256 flights
- May 2025: 73.4% from 282 flights
- June 2025: 70.0% from 278 flights
- July 2025: 70.1% from 282 flights
- August 2025: 84.2% from 253 flights
- September 2025: 93.3% from 239 flights
- October 2025: 86.7% from 279 flights
- November 2025: 88.4% from 264 flights
- December 2025: 78.7% from 263 flights
- January 2026: 82.7% from 247 flights
- February 2026: 83.2% from 234 flights
- March 2026: 79.9% from 285 flights
- April 2026: 90.4% from 295 flights
- May 2026: 81.1% from 290 flights
- June 2026: 86.3% from 282 flights
- July 2026: 64.9% from 290 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 83.2% against 81.6% in the 12 months before — improving by 1.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,166 ATL → CHS flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed