Route profile
CLT→IND
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Charlotte to Indianapolis, 427 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 19% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,840 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CLT → IND arrives on time 73.0% of the time; the return trip, IND → CLT, arrives on time 79.3% of the time, a 6.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CLT → IND spends 26.4 minutes on the ground on a 427-mile trip: 18.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLT and 8.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at IND.
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 99% of 3,357 comparable routes.
85.1% on time in a typical November, against 54.5% 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 IND differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLT to IND struggles most at 10 PM: 60.7% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 6.9 points behind the 67.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11 points.
Saturday is the day CLT to IND 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 July, CLT to IND runs 16 points below routes of similar length, 54.5% on time to 70.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 15.3 points.
CLT to IND against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 60.7% | routes of similar length | 67.6% | −6.9 pts | 814 here, 34,652 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 70.3% | routes of similar length | 80.7% | −10.4 pts | 740 here, 190,719 there |
| Month: July | 54.5% | routes of similar length | 70.5% | −16.0 pts | 639 here, 179,789 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 427 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 → IND flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLT → IND cancelled 84 of 5,840 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 70. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 88.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 79 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 84 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.
74 cancellations, 88.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
10 cancellations, 11.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
0 cancellations, 0.0% 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.
84 coded cancellations were recorded on CLT → IND; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
62 min late
against a median of 3 min early
CLT → IND has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 3 min early, but the worst tenth are 65 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 5,840 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IND after arriving from CLT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 43% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 26% | High risk |
| 60 min | 19% | High risk |
| 90 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.9% | 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 1.44% of the time and diverts 0.24% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,742 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 62 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,840 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLT → IND flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.3% of the time, against 61.6% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 28.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 90.2% on time from 174 flights
- 8 AM: 90.5% on time from 203 flights
- 9 AM: 86.8% on time from 718 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 84.6% on time from 170 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 79.0% on time from 901 flights
- 2 PM: 79.5% on time from 189 flights
- 3 PM: 69.7% on time from 142 flights
- 4 PM: 64.9% on time from 559 flights
- 5 PM: 67.7% on time from 545 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 67.7% on time from 203 flights
- 8 PM: 65.8% on time from 646 flights
- 9 PM: 64.6% on time from 311 flights
- 10 PM: 60.7% on time from 838 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why CLT → IND 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 → IND. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CLT → IND, at 54.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.3% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 61.6%.
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 | 5,730 | 72.7% | 1.34% | -3 min | 10.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 79.6%
- Feb: 77.9%
- Mar: 73.9%
- Apr: 77.6%
- May: 65.6%
- Jun: 68.4%
- Jul: 54.5%
- Aug: 64.4%
- Sep: 78.8%
- Oct: 84.5%
- Nov: 85.1%
- Dec: 74.2%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 30.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 49.7% from 149 flights
- August 2023: 62.9% from 154 flights
- September 2023: 75.2% from 134 flights
- October 2023: 78.7% from 150 flights
- November 2023: 85.2% from 155 flights
- December 2023: 79.1% from 148 flights
- January 2024: 77.0% from 148 flights
- February 2024: 81.7% from 143 flights
- March 2024: 68.4% from 155 flights
- April 2024: 76.9% from 144 flights
- May 2024: 46.9% from 180 flights
- June 2024: 62.7% from 154 flights
- July 2024: 38.5% from 153 flights
- August 2024: 70.7% from 176 flights
- September 2024: 78.0% from 153 flights
- October 2024: 87.2% from 172 flights
- November 2024: 85.4% from 137 flights
- December 2024: 70.2% from 151 flights
- January 2025: 78.8% from 156 flights
- February 2025: 73.5% from 140 flights
- March 2025: 77.1% from 155 flights
- April 2025: 79.9% from 149 flights
- May 2025: 76.6% from 157 flights
- June 2025: 67.6% from 182 flights
- July 2025: 58.2% from 187 flights
- August 2025: 58.2% from 143 flights
- September 2025: 82.9% from 148 flights
- October 2025: 86.6% from 188 flights
- November 2025: 84.7% from 171 flights
- December 2025: 73.5% from 163 flights
- January 2026: 83.2% from 152 flights
- February 2026: 78.3% from 141 flights
- March 2026: 76.0% from 172 flights
- April 2026: 76.1% from 163 flights
- May 2026: 75.0% from 172 flights
- June 2026: 74.5% from 170 flights
- July 2026: 67.8% from 175 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.6% against 74.8% in the 12 months before — improving by 1.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,840 CLT → IND 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