Route profile
CLE→FLL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Cleveland to Fort Lauderdale, 1,062 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 62% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,675 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CLE → FLL arrives on time 82.2% of the time; the return trip, FLL → CLE, arrives on time 74.0% of the time, an 8.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CLE → FLL spends 24.4 minutes on the ground on a 1,062-mile trip: 15.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLE and 8.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at FLL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where CLE to FLL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLE to FLL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 83.7% arrive on time, 10.7 points ahead of the 73.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.1 points.
CLE to FLL struggles most at 6 AM: 84.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5.6 points behind the 90.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.1 points.
CLE to FLL holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 82.8% on time to their 75.8%, a 7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6 points.
July is kinder to CLE to FLL than to routes of similar length: 84.6% on time against 68.1%, 16.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 14.9 points.
United Airlines does better on CLE to FLL than on its routes of similar length: 89.6% on time here, 80.7% there, 8.9 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 9.7 points.
CLE to FLL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 83.7% | routes of similar length | 73.0% | +10.7 pts | 123 here, 177,574 there |
| Hour: 6 AM departures | 84.7% | routes of similar length | 90.3% | −5.6 pts | 347 here, 219,648 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 82.8% | routes of similar length | 75.8% | +7.0 pts | 576 here, 424,227 there |
| Month: July | 84.6% | routes of similar length | 68.1% | +16.5 pts | 358 here, 313,136 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 89.6% | routes of similar length | 80.7% | +8.9 pts | 1,507 here, 402,796 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 1,062 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 → FLL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLE → FLL cancelled 55 of 3,675 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 67. The reason filed most often was the airline, 52.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 127 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 55 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.
29 cancellations, 52.7% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
21 cancellations, 38.2% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
5 cancellations, 9.1% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
55 coded cancellations were recorded on CLE → FLL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
38 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 3,675 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at FLL after arriving from CLE.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 29% | High risk |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.4% | 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 1.50% of the time and diverts 0.27% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,610 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 38 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,675 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLE → FLL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.6% of the time, against 64.8% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 23.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 88.2% on time from 421 flights
- 6 AM: 84.7% on time from 356 flights
- 7 AM: 91.6% on time from 607 flights
- 8 AM: 88.0% on time from 470 flights
- 9 AM: 86.4% on time from 407 flights
- 10 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 85.6% on time from 126 flights
- 2 PM: 83.7% on time from 123 flights
- 3 PM: 69.9% on time from 134 flights
- 4 PM: 70.2% on time from 203 flights
- 5 PM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 67.3% on time from 163 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why CLE → FLL 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 CLE → FLL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CLE → FLL, at 38.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.6% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 64.8%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,518 | 89.6% | 0.46% | -14 min | 4.0% |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,072 | 79.4% | 2.05% | -9 min | 7.9% |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,061 | 74.1% | 2.26% | -4 min | 9.8% |
United Airlines flew 41.6% of the 3,651 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.26% of its flights here against 0.46% for United Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 15.5 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.1%
- Feb: 80.5%
- Mar: 78.2%
- Apr: 84.3%
- May: 86.3%
- Jun: 86.1%
- Jul: 84.6%
- Aug: 80.7%
- Sep: 86.5%
- Oct: 87.4%
- Nov: 86.1%
- Dec: 78.0%
January is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 14.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (92)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (108)
- October 2023: 85.0% from 121 flights
- November 2023: 80.2% from 122 flights
- December 2023: 76.6% from 154 flights
- January 2024: too few flights to score (118)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (104)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (101)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (95)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (69)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (83)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (75)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (68)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (59)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (67)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (91)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (107)
- February 2025: 75.6% from 120 flights
- March 2025: 84.7% from 147 flights
- April 2025: 85.8% from 120 flights
- May 2025: too few flights to score (82)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (62)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (60)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (68)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (56)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (69)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (82)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (92)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (111)
- February 2026: 78.3% from 121 flights
- March 2026: 69.3% from 160 flights
- April 2026: too few flights to score (108)
- May 2026: 91.9% from 126 flights
- June 2026: too few flights to score (111)
- July 2026: 89.1% from 134 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.1% against 84.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,675 CLE → FLL 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