Route profile
CLE→RSW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Cleveland to Fort Myers, 1,025 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 58% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,119 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CLE → RSW arrives on time 83.0% of the time; the return trip, RSW → CLE, arrives on time 81.3% of the time.
CLE → RSW spends 24.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,025-mile trip: 16.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLE and 7.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at RSW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where CLE to RSW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLE to RSW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 83.8% arrive on time, 10.7 points ahead of the 73.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.2 points.
CLE to RSW holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 85.1% on time to their 75.5%, a 9.6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.9 points.
June is kinder to CLE to RSW than to routes of similar length: 91.4% on time against 71.5%, 19.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 18.7 points.
United Airlines does better on CLE to RSW than on its routes of similar length: 91.2% on time here, 80.5% there, 10.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 11.3 points.
CLE to RSW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 83.8% | routes of similar length | 73.1% | +10.7 pts | 191 here, 168,630 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 85.1% | routes of similar length | 75.5% | +9.6 pts | 484 here, 409,383 there |
| Month: June | 91.4% | routes of similar length | 71.5% | +19.9 pts | 174 here, 220,194 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 91.2% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | +10.7 pts | 1,128 here, 377,211 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 1,025 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 → RSW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLE → RSW cancelled 58 of 3,119 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 54. The reason filed most often was the airline, 50.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 108 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 58 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, 50.0% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
25 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.
4 cancellations, 6.9% 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.
58 coded cancellations were recorded on CLE → RSW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
38 min late
against a median of 12 min early
Percentiles over 3,119 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at RSW after arriving from CLE.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 28% | High risk |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.8% | 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 1.86% of the time and diverts 0.32% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,051 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 3,119 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLE → RSW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.4% of the time, against 71.7% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 16.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 91.9% on time from 179 flights
- 7 AM: 88.5% on time from 600 flights
- 8 AM: 83.8% on time from 167 flights
- 9 AM: 87.5% on time from 665 flights
- 10 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 82.0% on time from 175 flights
- 1 PM: 76.2% on time from 166 flights
- 2 PM: 83.8% on time from 195 flights
- 3 PM: 76.1% on time from 146 flights
- 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 72.1% on time from 233 flights
- 6 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 71.7% on time from 125 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why CLE → RSW 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for CLE → RSW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CLE → RSW, at 34.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.4% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 71.7%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlines | 1,956 | 78.2% | 2.15% | -9 min | 9.1% |
| United Airlines | 1,148 | 91.2% | 1.31% | -15 min | 3.1% |
Frontier Airlines flew 63.0% of the 3,104 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 13.0 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| F91544 Frontier Airlines | 5:30 AM | 639 | 81.1% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.0%
- Feb: 85.2%
- Mar: 77.4%
- Apr: 88.1%
- May: 87.9%
- Jun: 91.4%
- Jul: 83.7%
- Aug: 80.5%
- Sep: 88.3%
- Oct: 90.4%
- Nov: 85.2%
- Dec: 76.7%
January is historically the weakest month and June the strongest, a spread of 18.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (31)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (47)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (70)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (67)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (90)
- December 2023: 84.5% from 120 flights
- January 2024: 72.4% from 132 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- March 2024: 68.3% from 131 flights
- April 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (65)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (56)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (56)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (69)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (70)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (88)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (102)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (110)
- February 2025: 82.1% from 121 flights
- March 2025: 78.1% from 141 flights
- April 2025: 89.9% from 120 flights
- May 2025: too few flights to score (64)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (54)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (57)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (53)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (34)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (40)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (64)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (85)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (74)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (106)
- March 2026: 83.8% from 170 flights
- April 2026: too few flights to score (103)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (71)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (68)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (66)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 83.0% against 85.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.1 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,119 CLE → RSW 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