Route profile
ATL→CMH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Atlanta to Columbus, 447 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 74% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,778 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
ATL → CMH arrives on time 81.3% of the time; the return trip, CMH → ATL, arrives on time 86.1% of the time, a 4.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
ATL → CMH spends 21.9 minutes on the ground on a 447-mile trip: 15.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ATL and 6.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at CMH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 98% of 5,368 comparable routes.
80.2% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 80.1% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
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 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where ATL to CMH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
ATL to CMH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 10 PM: 79.5% arrive on time, 12.7 points ahead of the 66.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.9 points.
ATL to CMH holds up on Wednesdays better than routes of similar length do: 88.0% on time to their 82.0%, a 6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.2 points.
October is kinder to ATL to CMH than to routes of similar length: 89.7% on time against 82.8%, 6.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.7 points.
ATL to CMH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 79.5% | routes of similar length | 66.8% | +12.7 pts | 1,003 here, 34,007 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 88.0% | routes of similar length | 82.0% | +6.0 pts | 1,320 here, 218,440 there |
| Month: October | 89.7% | routes of similar length | 82.8% | +6.9 pts | 838 here, 136,354 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 447 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 → CMH flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
ATL → CMH cancelled 88 of 9,778 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 111. The reason filed most often was the airline, 62.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 178 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 88 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.
55 cancellations, 62.5% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
33 cancellations, 37.5% 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.
88 coded cancellations were recorded on ATL → CMH; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
34 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 9,778 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CMH after arriving from ATL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.0% | 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 0.90% of the time and diverts 0.11% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,679 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 34 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,778 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
ATL → CMH flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.1% of the time, against 72.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 18.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 93.4% on time from 630 flights
- 8 AM: 89.3% on time from 787 flights
- 9 AM: 84.1% on time from 357 flights
- 10 AM: 86.1% on time from 721 flights
- 11 AM: 85.4% on time from 481 flights
- 12 PM: 85.4% on time from 535 flights
- 1 PM: 85.9% on time from 635 flights
- 2 PM: 83.9% on time from 453 flights
- 3 PM: 78.6% on time from 1,065 flights
- 4 PM: 79.6% on time from 292 flights
- 5 PM: 77.5% on time from 711 flights
- 6 PM: 80.2% on time from 328 flights
- 7 PM: 69.2% on time from 736 flights
- 8 PM: 73.7% on time from 529 flights
- 9 PM: 71.2% on time from 392 flights
- 10 PM: 79.5% on time from 1,016 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why ATL → CMH 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 → CMH. 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 | 7,703 | 82.2% | 0.99% | -5 min | 5.1% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,828 | 79.9% | 0.33% | -3 min | 5.4% |
Delta Air Lines flew 80.8% of the 9,531 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 2.3 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 11.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 79.5%
- Feb: 82.3%
- Mar: 83.5%
- Apr: 83.5%
- May: 76.8%
- Jun: 79.1%
- Jul: 69.5%
- Aug: 80.6%
- Sep: 85.2%
- Oct: 89.7%
- Nov: 88.8%
- Dec: 82.3%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 20.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 73.8% from 305 flights
- August 2023: 79.0% from 284 flights
- September 2023: 86.4% from 258 flights
- October 2023: 89.7% from 263 flights
- November 2023: 92.8% from 264 flights
- December 2023: 91.3% from 263 flights
- January 2024: 78.7% from 222 flights
- February 2024: 86.7% from 210 flights
- March 2024: 87.8% from 237 flights
- April 2024: 88.1% from 253 flights
- May 2024: 79.0% from 273 flights
- June 2024: 86.7% from 271 flights
- July 2024: 66.0% from 278 flights
- August 2024: 83.5% from 279 flights
- September 2024: 84.3% from 268 flights
- October 2024: 94.3% from 282 flights
- November 2024: 88.7% from 248 flights
- December 2024: 81.9% from 259 flights
- January 2025: 78.3% from 261 flights
- February 2025: 78.9% from 228 flights
- March 2025: 86.9% from 252 flights
- April 2025: 77.4% from 267 flights
- May 2025: 70.3% from 290 flights
- June 2025: 69.3% from 310 flights
- July 2025: 70.5% from 298 flights
- August 2025: 79.5% from 295 flights
- September 2025: 84.8% from 277 flights
- October 2025: 85.3% from 294 flights
- November 2025: 84.7% from 253 flights
- December 2025: 73.3% from 254 flights
- January 2026: 81.5% from 234 flights
- February 2026: 81.6% from 217 flights
- March 2026: 75.8% from 248 flights
- April 2026: 85.4% from 249 flights
- May 2026: 81.5% from 270 flights
- June 2026: 82.3% from 270 flights
- July 2026: 67.2% from 294 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.2% against 80.1% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,778 ATL → CMH 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