Route profile
CLT→FLL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale, 632 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 18% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 10,142 flights. How this is calculated
CLT → FLL arrives on time 72.9% of the time; the return trip, FLL → CLT, arrives on time 76.5% of the time, a 3.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CLT → FLL spends 24.4 minutes on the ground on a 632-mile trip: 18.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLT and 5.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at FLL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Why CLT → FLL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLT → FLL cancelled 188 of 10,142 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 54. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 73.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 73 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 188 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.
139 cancellations, 73.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
40 cancellations, 21.3% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
9 cancellations, 4.8% 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.
188 coded cancellations were recorded on CLT → FLL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
59 min late
against a median of 3 min early
CLT → FLL has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 3 min early, but the worst tenth are 62 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 10,142 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at FLL after arriving from CLT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 43% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 26% | High risk |
| 60 min | 18% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.7% | 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 1.85% of the time and diverts 0.22% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,932 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 59 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 10,142 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLT → FLL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.8% of the time, against 61.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 25.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.8% on time from 147 flights
- 6 AM: 92.6% on time from 274 flights
- 7 AM: 87.9% on time from 981 flights
- 8 AM: 83.6% on time from 534 flights
- 9 AM: 87.5% on time from 439 flights
- 10 AM: 83.2% on time from 479 flights
- 11 AM: 79.0% on time from 936 flights
- 12 PM: 74.8% on time from 256 flights
- 1 PM: 75.1% on time from 699 flights
- 2 PM: 70.0% on time from 843 flights
- 3 PM: 66.4% on time from 298 flights
- 4 PM: 62.1% on time from 1,099 flights
- 5 PM: 70.4% on time from 197 flights
- 6 PM: 62.4% on time from 562 flights
- 7 PM: 62.1% on time from 450 flights
- 8 PM: 61.2% on time from 457 flights
- 9 PM: 65.3% on time from 485 flights
- 10 PM: 61.5% on time from 1,001 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why CLT → FLL 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 → FLL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CLT → FLL, at 48.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.8% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 61.9%.
How this route holds up in bad weather
July 2023 – July 2026
The harder-hit end is the one the flight leaves from, where a cancellation keeps it from departing at all. Bad weather cancels 4.6 times the normal rate at CLT against 2.1 times at FLL. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: CLT 5.7% against 1.2%, FLL 3.3% against 1.6%. Flights that did leave FLL in bad weather arrived on time 54.6% of the time, against 73.3% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | CLT | FLL |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 5.7% | 3.3% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.2% | 1.6% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 63.5% | 54.6% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 75.9% | 73.3% |
| Departures in bad weather | 55,311 | 13,418 |
American Airlines (5.3% cancelled against 6.4% for the other carriers at CLT) cancelled fewer departures from CLT in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly worse.
This route’s airlines in bad weather at CLT
All departures from CLT| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 33,044 | 5.3%below the others | 6.4% |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,090 | 6.1%about level | 5.7% |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from CLT and FLL, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from CLT on every route.
Weather source and limits. In full: CLT (airlines), FLL, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.
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 | 7,352 | 74.0% | 1.52% | -4 min | 9.2% |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,530 | 70.6% | 2.57% | -4 min | 11.3% |
American Airlines flew 74.4% of the 9,882 flights listed. Spirit Airlines cancelled 2.57% of its flights here against 1.52% for American Airlines.
American Airlines arrived on time 3.4 percentage points more often than Spirit Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Charlotte to Miami
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLT→MIA Charlotte to Miami | 11,276 | 74.8% | 1.47% | -4 min | 56 |
| CLT→FLL this route Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale | 10,142 | 72.9% | 1.85% | -3 min | 52 |
CLT → MIA is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 74.8% on time, against 72.9% for CLT → FLL.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 11.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 79.2%
- Feb: 79.6%
- Mar: 71.6%
- Apr: 77.5%
- May: 68.6%
- Jun: 63.8%
- Jul: 57.5%
- Aug: 65.4%
- Sep: 78.5%
- Oct: 80.9%
- Nov: 81.1%
- Dec: 71.3%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 23.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 55.7% from 210 flights
- August 2023: 58.5% from 216 flights
- September 2023: 72.8% from 186 flights
- October 2023: 82.2% from 260 flights
- November 2023: 79.1% from 304 flights
- December 2023: 72.8% from 317 flights
- January 2024: 71.7% from 321 flights
- February 2024: 79.1% from 327 flights
- March 2024: 66.8% from 372 flights
- April 2024: 76.9% from 328 flights
- May 2024: 57.9% from 340 flights
- June 2024: 61.0% from 278 flights
- July 2024: 52.7% from 252 flights
- August 2024: 66.8% from 256 flights
- September 2024: 75.3% from 228 flights
- October 2024: 79.1% from 269 flights
- November 2024: 83.9% from 311 flights
- December 2024: 72.2% from 325 flights
- January 2025: 84.2% from 299 flights
- February 2025: 80.6% from 296 flights
- March 2025: 79.8% from 346 flights
- April 2025: 79.3% from 300 flights
- May 2025: 71.8% from 297 flights
- June 2025: 57.9% from 240 flights
- July 2025: 60.3% from 244 flights
- August 2025: 70.1% from 243 flights
- September 2025: 86.3% from 227 flights
- October 2025: 81.4% from 264 flights
- November 2025: 79.7% from 206 flights
- December 2025: 68.5% from 260 flights
- January 2026: 83.3% from 276 flights
- February 2026: 79.1% from 260 flights
- March 2026: 68.0% from 322 flights
- April 2026: 76.2% from 310 flights
- May 2026: 80.5% from 223 flights
- June 2026: 75.7% from 179 flights
- July 2026: 61.2% from 250 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.6% against 74.9% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 10,142 CLT → 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