Route profile
CHS→BWI
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Charleston to Baltimore, 472 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 80% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,783 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CHS → BWI arrives on time 82.8% of the time; the return trip, BWI → CHS, arrives on time 76.2% of the time, a 6.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CHS → BWI spends 18.8 minutes on the ground on a 472-mile trip: 12.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CHS and 6.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at BWI.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where CHS to BWI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CHS to BWI is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 79.3% arrive on time, 10.3 points ahead of the 69.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.7 points.
CHS to BWI holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 83.2% on time to their 74.9%, a 8.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
January is kinder to CHS to BWI than to routes of similar length: 87.7% on time against 79.6%, 8.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.6 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on CHS to BWI than on its routes of similar length: 82.8% on time here, 78.0% there, 4.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.4 points.
CHS to BWI against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 79.3% | routes of similar length | 69.0% | +10.3 pts | 381 here, 84,407 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 83.2% | routes of similar length | 74.9% | +8.3 pts | 584 here, 226,155 there |
| Month: January | 87.7% | routes of similar length | 79.6% | +8.1 pts | 261 here, 110,345 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 82.8% | routes of similar length | 78.0% | +4.8 pts | 3,690 here, 421,031 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 472 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 CHS → BWI flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CHS → BWI cancelled 52 of 3,783 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 73. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 76.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 95 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 52 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
40 cancellations, 76.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
8 cancellations, 15.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
4 cancellations, 7.7% 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.
52 coded cancellations were recorded on CHS → BWI; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
27 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 3,783 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BWI after arriving from CHS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 8.9% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.8% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.6% | 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 1.37% of the time and diverts 0.29% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,720 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 27 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,783 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CHS → BWI flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.7% of the time, against 72.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 19.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 91.9% on time from 700 flights
- 8 AM: 93.9% on time from 348 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 84.8% on time from 212 flights
- 11 AM: 91.8% on time from 236 flights
- 12 PM: 84.7% on time from 159 flights
- 1 PM: 85.5% on time from 320 flights
- 2 PM: 80.2% on time from 164 flights
- 3 PM: 69.9% on time from 157 flights
- 4 PM: 73.1% on time from 267 flights
- 5 PM: 79.1% on time from 182 flights
- 6 PM: 79.3% on time from 387 flights
- 7 PM: 68.1% on time from 422 flights
- 8 PM: 69.6% on time from 147 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why CHS → BWI runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 CHS → BWI. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CHS → BWI, at 51.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.7% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 72.9%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 3,753 | 82.8% | 1.39% | -5 min | 3.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 7.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 87.7%
- Feb: 89.2%
- Mar: 85.4%
- Apr: 85.1%
- May: 80.9%
- Jun: 79.9%
- Jul: 72.2%
- Aug: 79.4%
- Sep: 85.3%
- Oct: 83.7%
- Nov: 87.2%
- Dec: 83.9%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 17.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (98)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (80)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (91)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (98)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (88)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (92)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (83)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (106)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (113)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (101)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (94)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (91)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (80)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (108)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- May 2025: 79.2% from 125 flights
- June 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (99)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (103)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (102)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (96)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (81)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (105)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (109)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (113)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (107)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (110)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.2% against 83.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,783 CHS → BWI 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