Route profile
CLT→MSP
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Charlotte to Minneapolis, 930 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 63% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,760 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CLT → MSP arrives on time 80.8% of the time; the return trip, MSP → CLT, arrives on time 80.7% of the time.
CLT → MSP spends 23.7 minutes on the ground on a 930-mile trip: 17.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLT and 5.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at MSP.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where CLT to MSP differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLT to MSP is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 87.0% arrive on time, 19.2 points ahead of the 67.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 18.5 points.
CLT to MSP struggles most at 3 PM: 65.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5.1 points behind the 70.7% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
CLT to MSP holds up on Wednesdays better than routes of similar length do: 84.8% on time to their 80.1%, a 4.7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4 points.
March is kinder to CLT to MSP than to routes of similar length: 84.1% on time against 76.6%, 7.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.2 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on CLT to MSP than on its routes of similar length: 85.7% on time here, 81.4% there, 4.3 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.2 points.
CLT to MSP against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 87.0% | routes of similar length | 67.8% | +19.2 pts | 399 here, 187,478 there |
| Hour: 3 PM departures | 65.6% | routes of similar length | 70.7% | −5.1 pts | 900 here, 174,028 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 84.8% | routes of similar length | 80.1% | +4.7 pts | 1,073 here, 400,916 there |
| Month: March | 84.1% | routes of similar length | 76.6% | +7.5 pts | 634 here, 254,801 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 85.7% | routes of similar length | 81.4% | +4.3 pts | 3,910 here, 368,689 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 930 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 → MSP flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLT → MSP cancelled 81 of 7,760 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 96. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 76.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 125 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 81 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.
62 cancellations, 76.5% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
19 cancellations, 23.5% 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.
81 coded cancellations were recorded on CLT → MSP; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
39 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 7,760 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MSP after arriving from CLT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.0% | Low 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 1.04% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,666 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 39 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,760 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLT → MSP flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.8% of the time, against 67.2% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 24.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 94.1% on time from 1,125 flights
- 7 AM: 87.7% on time from 489 flights
- 8 AM: 88.6% on time from 188 flights
- 9 AM: 82.2% on time from 120 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 85.0% on time from 1,640 flights
- 12 PM: 89.7% on time from 412 flights
- 1 PM: 88.5% on time from 151 flights
- 2 PM: 78.3% on time from 226 flights
- 3 PM: 65.6% on time from 905 flights
- 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 76.6% on time from 417 flights
- 6 PM: 87.0% on time from 400 flights
- 7 PM: 72.3% on time from 652 flights
- 8 PM: 66.8% on time from 213 flights
- 9 PM: 68.2% on time from 218 flights
- 10 PM: 67.1% on time from 524 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why CLT → MSP 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 → MSP. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CLT → MSP, at 43.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 91.8% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 67.2%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,945 | 85.7% | 0.71% | -11 min | 5.6% |
| American Airlines | 3,789 | 75.7% | 1.40% | -4 min | 7.7% |
Delta Air Lines flew 51.0% of the 7,734 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 10.0 percentage points more often than American 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL2491 Delta Air Lines | 6:20 AM | 1,022 | 93.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 7.4 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 85.3%
- Feb: 84.9%
- Mar: 84.1%
- Apr: 82.2%
- May: 77.1%
- Jun: 73.1%
- Jul: 67.9%
- Aug: 78.3%
- Sep: 85.7%
- Oct: 86.8%
- Nov: 88.4%
- Dec: 81.6%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 20.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 74.0% from 202 flights
- August 2023: 79.7% from 229 flights
- September 2023: 87.9% from 214 flights
- October 2023: 87.7% from 228 flights
- November 2023: 91.0% from 200 flights
- December 2023: 89.4% from 181 flights
- January 2024: 82.9% from 175 flights
- February 2024: 89.2% from 166 flights
- March 2024: 86.3% from 206 flights
- April 2024: 85.2% from 210 flights
- May 2024: 72.8% from 217 flights
- June 2024: 67.6% from 210 flights
- July 2024: 53.2% from 213 flights
- August 2024: 76.7% from 238 flights
- September 2024: 82.7% from 228 flights
- October 2024: 85.7% from 217 flights
- November 2024: 87.1% from 232 flights
- December 2024: 80.4% from 225 flights
- January 2025: 85.6% from 198 flights
- February 2025: 81.4% from 184 flights
- March 2025: 84.4% from 233 flights
- April 2025: 71.4% from 227 flights
- May 2025: 76.0% from 234 flights
- June 2025: 73.8% from 220 flights
- July 2025: 73.4% from 225 flights
- August 2025: 78.7% from 214 flights
- September 2025: 86.8% from 205 flights
- October 2025: 86.9% from 223 flights
- November 2025: 87.2% from 188 flights
- December 2025: 75.5% from 184 flights
- January 2026: 87.4% from 191 flights
- February 2026: 84.6% from 179 flights
- March 2026: 81.4% from 207 flights
- April 2026: 91.4% from 197 flights
- May 2026: 82.4% from 223 flights
- June 2026: 77.8% from 211 flights
- July 2026: 70.1% from 226 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.4% against 79.8% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,760 CLT → MSP 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