Route profile
CLT→CLE
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Charlotte to Cleveland, 430 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 14% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,795 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CLT → CLE arrives on time 72.5% of the time; the return trip, CLE → CLT, arrives on time 79.8% of the time, a 7.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CLT → CLE spends 28.5 minutes on the ground on a 430-mile trip: 18.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLT and 9.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLE.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where CLT to CLE differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLT to CLE struggles most at 5 PM: 52.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 17.7 points behind the 70.3% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 17.2 points.
CLT to CLE is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 AM: 93.1% arrive on time, 5.9 points ahead of the 87.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.2 points.
Saturday is the day CLT to CLE slips furthest against routes of similar length, 70.3% on time where they average 80.7%, 10.4 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 8.8 points.
In August, CLT to CLE runs 12.7 points below routes of similar length, 65.4% on time to 78.1%. Against all other routes the gap is 11.1 points.
CLT to CLE against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 52.6% | routes of similar length | 70.3% | −17.7 pts | 289 here, 113,683 there |
| Hour: 8 AM departures | 93.1% | routes of similar length | 87.2% | +5.9 pts | 145 here, 111,919 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 70.3% | routes of similar length | 80.7% | −10.4 pts | 753 here, 188,982 there |
| Month: August | 65.4% | routes of similar length | 78.1% | −12.7 pts | 514 here, 135,073 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 430 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 → CLE flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLT → CLE cancelled 93 of 5,795 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 62. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 86.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 72 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 93 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.
80 cancellations, 86.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
12 cancellations, 12.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
1 cancellation, 1.1% 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.
93 coded cancellations were recorded on CLT → CLE; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
64 min late
against a median of 2 min early
CLT → CLE has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 2 min early, but the worst tenth are 66 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 5,795 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLE after arriving from CLT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 45% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 27% | High risk |
| 60 min | 19% | High risk |
| 90 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.1% | 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 0.14% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,694 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 64 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,795 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLT → CLE flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.9% of the time, against 63.0% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 27.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 90.3% on time from 562 flights
- 8 AM: 93.1% on time from 152 flights
- 9 AM: 80.6% on time from 143 flights
- 10 AM: 79.6% on time from 279 flights
- 11 AM: 87.7% on time from 614 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 74.4% on time from 369 flights
- 2 PM: 81.9% on time from 156 flights
- 3 PM: 69.6% on time from 420 flights
- 4 PM: 64.9% on time from 511 flights
- 5 PM: 52.6% on time from 292 flights
- 6 PM: 67.1% on time from 340 flights
- 7 PM: 76.1% on time from 141 flights
- 8 PM: 62.6% on time from 669 flights
- 9 PM: 62.7% on time from 168 flights
- 10 PM: 62.9% on time from 883 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why CLT → CLE 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 → CLE. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CLT → CLE, at 50.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.9% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 63.0%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 5,123 | 72.9% | 1.31% | -2 min | 10.4% |
| PSA Airlines | 339 | 74.5% | 5.90% | -3 min | 8.8% |
| Frontier Airlines | 320 | 65.3% | 1.88% | 0 min | 16.6% |
American Airlines flew 88.6% of the 5,782 flights listed. PSA Airlines cancelled 5.90% of its flights here against 1.31% for American Airlines.
PSA Airlines arrived on time 9.2 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 12.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.6%
- Feb: 78.4%
- Mar: 72.4%
- Apr: 74.9%
- May: 69.4%
- Jun: 61.0%
- Jul: 59.0%
- Aug: 65.4%
- Sep: 80.6%
- Oct: 81.1%
- Nov: 82.4%
- Dec: 75.9%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 23.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 65.9% from 187 flights
- August 2023: 66.0% from 198 flights
- September 2023: 76.3% from 173 flights
- October 2023: 85.2% from 189 flights
- November 2023: 88.1% from 151 flights
- December 2023: 83.4% from 145 flights
- January 2024: 72.3% from 148 flights
- February 2024: 78.3% from 143 flights
- March 2024: 74.5% from 154 flights
- April 2024: 67.5% from 157 flights
- May 2024: 56.0% from 170 flights
- June 2024: 60.4% from 167 flights
- July 2024: 44.0% from 171 flights
- August 2024: 61.6% from 166 flights
- September 2024: 79.1% from 156 flights
- October 2024: 80.5% from 159 flights
- November 2024: 79.6% from 142 flights
- December 2024: 73.5% from 155 flights
- January 2025: 79.9% from 149 flights
- February 2025: 79.4% from 134 flights
- March 2025: 73.5% from 153 flights
- April 2025: 74.8% from 151 flights
- May 2025: 77.4% from 167 flights
- June 2025: 58.3% from 159 flights
- July 2025: 64.2% from 161 flights
- August 2025: 68.3% from 163 flights
- September 2025: 87.3% from 142 flights
- October 2025: 76.9% from 161 flights
- November 2025: 79.8% from 176 flights
- December 2025: 70.6% from 139 flights
- January 2026: 78.0% from 128 flights
- February 2026: 77.3% from 123 flights
- March 2026: 69.0% from 150 flights
- April 2026: 82.5% from 154 flights
- May 2026: 75.3% from 154 flights
- June 2026: 64.4% from 148 flights
- July 2026: 61.7% from 152 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.2% against 73.3% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,795 CLT → CLE 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