Route profile
CLT→ABE
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Charlotte to Allentown, 481 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 24% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,090 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CLT → ABE arrives on time 77.0% of the time; the return trip, ABE → CLT, arrives on time 84.5% of the time, a 7.5-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CLT → ABE spends 32.3 minutes on the ground on a 481-mile trip: 28.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLT and 4.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at ABE.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Reliability here swings unusually widely by season, a wider month-to-month spread than 93% of 3,357 comparable routes.
85.6% on time in a typical February, against 60.5% in July.
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 3,357 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where CLT to ABE differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLT to ABE is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 80.3% arrive on time, 11.7 points ahead of the 68.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.8 points.
Saturday is the day CLT to ABE slips furthest against routes of similar length, 75.8% on time where they average 80.2%, 4.4 points lower.
In July, CLT to ABE runs 9.4 points below routes of similar length, 60.5% on time to 69.9%. Against all other routes the gap is 9.2 points.
CLT to ABE against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 80.3% | routes of similar length | 68.6% | +11.7 pts | 127 here, 55,337 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 75.8% | routes of similar length | 80.2% | −4.4 pts | 414 here, 180,235 there |
| Month: July | 60.5% | routes of similar length | 69.9% | −9.4 pts | 306 here, 166,440 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 481 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 CLT → ABE flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLT → ABE cancelled 68 of 3,090 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 45. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 82.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 55 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 68 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.
56 cancellations, 82.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
7 cancellations, 10.3% 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, 7.4% 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.
68 coded cancellations were recorded on CLT → ABE; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
54 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 3,090 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ABE after arriving from CLT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 40% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.0% | Some 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 2.20% of the time and diverts 0.36% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,011 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 54 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,090 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLT → ABE flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 85.9% of the time, against 71.0% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 14.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 85.5% on time from 602 flights
- 10 AM: 85.6% on time from 140 flights
- 11 AM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 79.0% on time from 336 flights
- 3 PM: 76.0% on time from 226 flights
- 4 PM: 72.9% on time from 143 flights
- 5 PM: 66.2% on time from 306 flights
- 6 PM to 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 73.6% on time from 379 flights
- 9 PM: 80.3% on time from 129 flights
- 10 PM: 71.2% on time from 616 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why CLT → ABE runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for CLT → ABE. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CLT → ABE, at 46.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 85.9% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 71.0%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlines | 3,089 | 77.0% | 2.20% | -4 min | 9.0% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 77.0%
- Feb: 85.6%
- Mar: 82.0%
- Apr: 72.4%
- May: 74.6%
- Jun: 66.8%
- Jul: 60.5%
- Aug: 71.5%
- Sep: 83.5%
- Oct: 85.2%
- Nov: 85.2%
- Dec: 78.9%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 25.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (111)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (113)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (94)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (86)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (90)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (92)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (87)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (91)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (117)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- October 2024: 83.5% from 123 flights
- November 2024: too few flights to score (86)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (85)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (84)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (66)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (60)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (62)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (60)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (56)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (85)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (82)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (86)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (89)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (65)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (56)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (61)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (60)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (62)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (60)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (60)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.6% against 74.1% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,090 CLT → ABE 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