Route profile
CLT→BWI
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Charlotte to Baltimore, 361 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 22% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,613 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CLT → BWI arrives on time 73.3% of the time; the return trip, BWI → CLT, arrives on time 77.3% of the time, a 4.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CLT → BWI spends 26.3 minutes on the ground on a 361-mile trip: 20.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLT and 6.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at BWI.
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 92% of 3,357 comparable routes.
82.1% on time in a typical November, against 57.6% 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 BWI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLT to BWI struggles most at 7 PM: 55.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 15 points behind the 70.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.5 points.
Saturday is the day CLT to BWI slips furthest against routes of similar length, 73.8% on time where they average 81.5%, 7.7 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
In July, CLT to BWI runs 14.2 points below routes of similar length, 57.6% on time to 71.8%. Against all other routes the gap is 12.2 points.
Southwest Airlines’ flights on CLT to BWI arrive on time 75.8% of the time, 4.6 points below the 80.4% it manages on its routes of similar length.
CLT to BWI against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 55.3% | routes of similar length | 70.3% | −15.0 pts | 637 here, 87,782 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 73.8% | routes of similar length | 81.5% | −7.7 pts | 1,172 here, 173,120 there |
| Month: July | 57.6% | routes of similar length | 71.8% | −14.2 pts | 1,103 here, 160,319 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 75.8% | routes of similar length | 80.4% | −4.6 pts | 2,998 here, 481,301 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 361 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 → BWI flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLT → BWI cancelled 154 of 9,613 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 62. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 84.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 74 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 154 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.
130 cancellations, 84.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
17 cancellations, 11.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
7 cancellations, 4.5% 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.
154 coded cancellations were recorded on CLT → BWI; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
54 min late
against a median of 2 min early
Percentiles over 9,613 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BWI after arriving from CLT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 45% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 26% | High risk |
| 60 min | 17% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.5% | 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 1.60% of the time and diverts 0.16% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,444 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 9,613 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLT → BWI flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.4% of the time, against 61.3% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 26.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 91.3% on time from 231 flights
- 7 AM: 85.9% on time from 1,064 flights
- 8 AM: 88.0% on time from 712 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 80.0% on time from 316 flights
- 11 AM: 84.0% on time from 870 flights
- 12 PM: 84.4% on time from 333 flights
- 1 PM: 78.7% on time from 635 flights
- 2 PM: 75.0% on time from 216 flights
- 3 PM: 68.7% on time from 638 flights
- 4 PM: 61.4% on time from 504 flights
- 5 PM: 68.5% on time from 315 flights
- 6 PM: 61.7% on time from 991 flights
- 7 PM: 55.3% on time from 650 flights
- 8 PM: 64.9% on time from 970 flights
- 9 PM: 72.7% on time from 122 flights
- 10 PM: 63.9% on time from 822 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why CLT → BWI 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
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow 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 CLT → BWI. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CLT → BWI, at 50.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.4% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 61.3%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 5,959 | 72.4% | 1.71% | -2 min | 10.2% |
| Southwest Airlines | 3,031 | 75.8% | 0.99% | -1 min | 6.6% |
| Frontier Airlines | 393 | 64.7% | 4.58% | 3 min | 12.6% |
American Airlines flew 63.5% of the 9,383 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 4.58% of its flights here against 0.99% for Southwest Airlines.
Southwest Airlines arrived on time 11.1 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1318 American Airlines | 11:00 PM | 602 | 68.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 8.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.0%
- Feb: 80.3%
- Mar: 77.8%
- Apr: 76.2%
- May: 71.2%
- Jun: 62.7%
- Jul: 57.6%
- Aug: 68.4%
- Sep: 79.7%
- Oct: 80.0%
- Nov: 82.1%
- Dec: 75.4%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 24.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 62.7% from 241 flights
- August 2023: 68.6% from 245 flights
- September 2023: 79.9% from 274 flights
- October 2023: 84.9% from 272 flights
- November 2023: 85.8% from 234 flights
- December 2023: 77.1% from 231 flights
- January 2024: 71.8% from 210 flights
- February 2024: 83.5% from 212 flights
- March 2024: 77.6% from 237 flights
- April 2024: 70.9% from 270 flights
- May 2024: 56.8% from 302 flights
- June 2024: 58.7% from 322 flights
- July 2024: 50.0% from 317 flights
- August 2024: 66.1% from 313 flights
- September 2024: 72.4% from 307 flights
- October 2024: 75.7% from 309 flights
- November 2024: 77.6% from 255 flights
- December 2024: 73.6% from 270 flights
- January 2025: 82.0% from 224 flights
- February 2025: 77.6% from 210 flights
- March 2025: 83.2% from 262 flights
- April 2025: 78.5% from 229 flights
- May 2025: 76.2% from 294 flights
- June 2025: 60.1% from 305 flights
- July 2025: 56.0% from 310 flights
- August 2025: 70.9% from 270 flights
- September 2025: 88.4% from 251 flights
- October 2025: 79.8% from 288 flights
- November 2025: 83.2% from 242 flights
- December 2025: 75.7% from 248 flights
- January 2026: 86.9% from 202 flights
- February 2026: 79.8% from 190 flights
- March 2026: 71.9% from 232 flights
- April 2026: 79.8% from 244 flights
- May 2026: 81.9% from 260 flights
- June 2026: 70.7% from 259 flights
- July 2026: 63.5% from 272 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.4% against 72.5% in the 12 months before — improving by 4.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,613 CLT → 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