Route profile
CLT→MEM
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Charlotte to Memphis, 511 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 20% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,787 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CLT → MEM arrives on time 73.1% of the time; the return trip, MEM → CLT, arrives on time 80.0% of the time, a 6.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CLT → MEM spends 26.5 minutes on the ground on a 511-mile trip: 19.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLT and 6.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at MEM.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 98% of 2,692 comparable routes.
PSA Airlines (73.5% on time) and American Airlines (73.0%) are close together here.
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 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where CLT to MEM differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLT to MEM struggles most at 11 PM: 59.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 15 points behind the 74.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 19.2 points.
Saturday is the day CLT to MEM slips furthest against routes of similar length, 69.7% on time where they average 80.3%, 10.6 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 9.4 points.
In August, CLT to MEM runs 11.2 points below routes of similar length, 66.9% on time to 78.1%. Against all other routes the gap is 9.6 points.
CLT to MEM against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 11 PM departures | 59.9% | routes of similar length | 74.9% | −15.0 pts | 187 here, 3,386 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 69.7% | routes of similar length | 80.3% | −10.6 pts | 766 here, 174,471 there |
| Month: August | 66.9% | routes of similar length | 78.1% | −11.2 pts | 507 here, 122,549 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 511 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 → MEM flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLT → MEM cancelled 93 of 5,787 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 62. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 87.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 71 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.
81 cancellations, 87.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
11 cancellations, 11.8% 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. 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.
93 coded cancellations were recorded on CLT → MEM; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
59 min late
against a median of 3 min early
CLT → MEM 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 5,787 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MEM 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 | 5.9% | 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 1.61% of the time and diverts 0.12% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,687 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 5,787 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLT → MEM flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.2% of the time, against 59.6% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 28.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 89.0% on time from 400 flights
- 8 AM: 87.1% on time from 285 flights
- 9 AM: 86.4% on time from 791 flights
- 10 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 79.5% on time from 840 flights
- 2 PM: 69.8% on time from 190 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 75.5% on time from 256 flights
- 5 PM: 67.0% on time from 760 flights
- 6 PM: 65.4% on time from 464 flights
- 7 PM: 62.2% on time from 392 flights
- 8 PM: 59.6% on time from 291 flights
- 9 PM: 54.0% on time from 190 flights
- 10 PM: 61.8% on time from 521 flights
- 11 PM: 59.9% on time from 198 flights
Why CLT → MEM 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 → MEM. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CLT → MEM, at 51.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.2% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 59.6%.
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 | 5,021 | 73.0% | 1.29% | -2 min | 9.9% |
| PSA Airlines | 765 | 73.5% | 3.66% | -5 min | 9.0% |
American Airlines flew 86.8% of the 5,786 flights listed. PSA Airlines cancelled 3.66% of its flights here against 1.29% for American Airlines.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 9.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.5%
- Feb: 76.2%
- Mar: 74.0%
- Apr: 72.1%
- May: 68.3%
- Jun: 69.4%
- Jul: 60.1%
- Aug: 66.9%
- Sep: 82.0%
- Oct: 83.1%
- Nov: 82.0%
- Dec: 75.1%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 23.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 60.4% from 173 flights
- August 2023: 62.5% from 182 flights
- September 2023: 83.3% from 162 flights
- October 2023: 84.3% from 178 flights
- November 2023: 79.5% from 171 flights
- December 2023: 71.7% from 152 flights
- January 2024: 64.8% from 148 flights
- February 2024: 82.4% from 143 flights
- March 2024: 71.6% from 155 flights
- April 2024: 71.0% from 145 flights
- May 2024: 58.4% from 181 flights
- June 2024: 75.7% from 179 flights
- July 2024: 50.3% from 183 flights
- August 2024: 66.1% from 179 flights
- September 2024: 75.5% from 156 flights
- October 2024: 82.8% from 169 flights
- November 2024: 85.9% from 149 flights
- December 2024: 77.9% from 172 flights
- January 2025: 76.7% from 152 flights
- February 2025: 73.6% from 135 flights
- March 2025: 79.5% from 155 flights
- April 2025: 74.8% from 144 flights
- May 2025: 72.5% from 182 flights
- June 2025: 60.7% from 154 flights
- July 2025: 69.2% from 147 flights
- August 2025: 72.7% from 157 flights
- September 2025: 88.3% from 128 flights
- October 2025: 82.1% from 151 flights
- November 2025: 80.9% from 153 flights
- December 2025: 75.3% from 146 flights
- January 2026: 80.2% from 144 flights
- February 2026: 71.8% from 128 flights
- March 2026: 70.9% from 145 flights
- April 2026: 70.5% from 149 flights
- May 2026: 75.4% from 142 flights
- June 2026: 70.8% from 147 flights
- July 2026: 62.7% from 151 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.0% against 74.6% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,787 CLT → MEM 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