Route profile
CLE→BOS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Cleveland to Boston, 563 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 44% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,255 flights. How this is calculated
CLE → BOS arrives on time 81.0% of the time; the return trip, BOS → CLE, arrives on time 79.9% of the time.
CLE → BOS spends 27.1 minutes on the ground on a 563-mile trip: 16.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLE and 10.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at BOS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where CLE to BOS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLE to BOS struggles most at 9 AM: 76.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9.6 points behind the 86.2% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
CLE to BOS holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 85.2% on time to their 80.1%, a 5.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
May is kinder to CLE to BOS than to routes of similar length: 84.6% on time against 76.0%, 8.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.4 points.
In January, CLE to BOS runs 6.8 points below routes of similar length, 73.0% on time to 79.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
JetBlue does better on CLE to BOS than on its routes of similar length: 76.9% on time here, 74.1% there, 2.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.7 points.
CLE to BOS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 76.6% | routes of similar length | 86.2% | −9.6 pts | 171 here, 111,503 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 85.2% | routes of similar length | 80.1% | +5.1 pts | 539 here, 228,900 there |
| Month: May | 84.6% | routes of similar length | 76.0% | +8.6 pts | 473 here, 158,051 there |
| Month: January | 73.0% | routes of similar length | 79.8% | −6.8 pts | 285 here, 137,172 there |
| Airline: JetBlue | 76.9% | routes of similar length | 74.1% | +2.8 pts | 2,395 here, 32,626 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 563 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 CLE → BOS flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLE → BOS cancelled 97 of 5,255 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 54. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 38.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 142 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 97 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
37 cancellations, 38.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
31 cancellations, 32.0% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
29 cancellations, 29.9% 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.
97 coded cancellations were recorded on CLE → BOS; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
49 min late
against a median of 11 min early
CLE → BOS has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 11 min early, but the worst tenth are 60 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 5,255 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BOS after arriving from CLE.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 30% | High risk |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.6% | 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 1.85% 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 5,150 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 49 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,255 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLE → BOS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.8% of the time, against 66.8% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 22.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 89.7% on time from 1,440 flights
- 7 AM: 85.8% on time from 292 flights
- 8 AM: 88.0% on time from 164 flights
- 9 AM: 76.6% on time from 174 flights
- 10 AM: 88.8% on time from 267 flights
- 11 AM: 85.7% on time from 836 flights
- 12 PM: 80.4% on time from 284 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 76.7% on time from 205 flights
- 3 PM: 75.6% on time from 135 flights
- 4 PM: 61.8% on time from 214 flights
- 5 PM: 68.9% on time from 757 flights
- 6 PM: 66.4% on time from 130 flights
- 7 PM: 70.0% on time from 132 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why CLE → BOS runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 CLE → BOS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 2,647 | 84.6% | 1.47% | -13 min | 7.1% |
| JetBlue | 2,451 | 76.9% | 2.04% | -8 min | 9.7% |
Republic Airways flew 51.9% of the 5,098 flights listed.
Republic Airways arrived on time 7.7 percentage points more often than JetBlue on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
YX5684 (6:00 AM) arrived on time 91.5% of the time, 24.5 points more often than B6640 (10:50 AM) at 67.0%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.0%
- Feb: 80.0%
- Mar: 83.3%
- Apr: 86.6%
- May: 84.6%
- Jun: 80.3%
- Jul: 74.4%
- Aug: 81.7%
- Sep: 77.8%
- Oct: 84.0%
- Nov: 87.2%
- Dec: 78.6%
January is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 14.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 70.9% from 163 flights
- August 2023: 71.3% from 174 flights
- September 2023: 74.7% from 158 flights
- October 2023: 85.2% from 162 flights
- November 2023: 92.9% from 154 flights
- December 2023: 90.3% from 135 flights
- January 2024: too few flights to score (113)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (114)
- April 2024: 76.7% from 131 flights
- May 2024: 86.5% from 171 flights
- June 2024: 82.7% from 166 flights
- July 2024: 75.9% from 166 flights
- August 2024: 82.9% from 170 flights
- September 2024: 89.6% from 144 flights
- October 2024: 92.4% from 145 flights
- November 2024: 88.2% from 144 flights
- December 2024: 78.3% from 140 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (92)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- April 2025: 94.7% from 133 flights
- May 2025: 82.7% from 163 flights
- June 2025: 76.6% from 169 flights
- July 2025: 75.1% from 178 flights
- August 2025: 90.8% from 175 flights
- September 2025: 70.3% from 170 flights
- October 2025: 76.0% from 179 flights
- November 2025: 80.8% from 158 flights
- December 2025: 67.2% from 140 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (94)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (79)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (107)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (112)
- May 2026: 84.3% from 140 flights
- June 2026: 81.9% from 150 flights
- July 2026: 75.8% from 146 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.9% against 83.4% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,255 CLE → BOS 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