Route profile
CLT→SFO
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Charlotte to San Francisco, 2,296 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 8% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,920 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CLT → SFO arrives on time 64.5% of the time; the return trip, SFO → CLT, arrives on time 81.3% of the time, a 16.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CLT → SFO spends 30.5 minutes on the ground on a 2,296-mile trip: 20.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLT and 9.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at SFO.
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 97% of 3,357 comparable routes.
76.8% on time in a typical January, against 49.5% in June.
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 SFO differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLT to SFO struggles most at 5 PM: 52.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 20 points behind the 72.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 16.9 points.
Sunday is the day CLT to SFO slips furthest against routes of similar length, 59.0% on time where they average 76.3%, 17.3 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 15.8 points.
In May, CLT to SFO runs 27.7 points below routes of similar length, 50.3% on time to 78.0%. Against all other routes the gap is 25 points.
American Airlines’ flights on CLT to SFO arrive on time 64.5% of the time, 14.6 points below the 79.1% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 10.6 points.
CLT to SFO against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 52.9% | routes of similar length | 72.9% | −20.0 pts | 465 here, 64,378 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 59.0% | routes of similar length | 76.3% | −17.3 pts | 730 here, 168,114 there |
| Month: May | 50.3% | routes of similar length | 78.0% | −27.7 pts | 441 here, 100,187 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 64.5% | routes of similar length | 79.1% | −14.6 pts | 4,861 here, 243,127 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 2,296 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 → SFO flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLT → SFO cancelled 50 of 4,920 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 98. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 88.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 112 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 50 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.
44 cancellations, 88.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
6 cancellations, 12.0% 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.
50 coded cancellations were recorded on CLT → SFO; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
66 min late
against a median of 2 min late
CLT → SFO has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 2 min late, but the worst tenth are 64 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 4,920 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SFO after arriving from CLT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 53% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 60 min | 23% | High risk |
| 90 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.2% | 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 1.02% of the time and diverts 0.18% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,861 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 66 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,920 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLT → SFO flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 77.8% of the time, against 57.2% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 20.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 79.6% on time from 918 flights
- 10 AM: 71.0% on time from 162 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 71.5% on time from 289 flights
- 1 PM: 70.5% on time from 173 flights
- 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 63.8% on time from 272 flights
- 4 PM: 66.9% on time from 450 flights
- 5 PM: 52.9% on time from 473 flights
- 6 PM: 59.3% on time from 871 flights
- 7 PM: 55.0% on time from 258 flights
- 8 PM: 55.8% on time from 867 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why CLT → SFO 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 → SFO. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CLT → SFO, at 43.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 77.8% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 57.2%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 4,920 | 64.5% | 1.02% | 2 min | 11.6% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1580 American Airlines | 8:15 PM | 789 | 63.1% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 11.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.8%
- Feb: 68.9%
- Mar: 69.4%
- Apr: 60.7%
- May: 50.3%
- Jun: 49.5%
- Jul: 52.1%
- Aug: 60.0%
- Sep: 74.0%
- Oct: 76.5%
- Nov: 73.2%
- Dec: 73.9%
June is historically the weakest month and January the strongest, a spread of 27.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 56.2% from 150 flights
- August 2023: 57.5% from 154 flights
- September 2023: 70.1% from 135 flights
- October 2023: 71.6% from 141 flights
- November 2023: 74.6% from 138 flights
- December 2023: too few flights to score (118)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (117)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- March 2024: 54.8% from 124 flights
- April 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- May 2024: 25.5% from 150 flights
- June 2024: 58.9% from 143 flights
- July 2024: 48.2% from 143 flights
- August 2024: 61.9% from 149 flights
- September 2024: 74.5% from 139 flights
- October 2024: 80.7% from 145 flights
- November 2024: 65.9% from 132 flights
- December 2024: 76.2% from 144 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- March 2025: 70.9% from 152 flights
- April 2025: 74.7% from 146 flights
- May 2025: 69.9% from 154 flights
- June 2025: 54.8% from 140 flights
- July 2025: 55.5% from 140 flights
- August 2025: 60.8% from 131 flights
- September 2025: 77.4% from 137 flights
- October 2025: 77.0% from 148 flights
- November 2025: too few flights to score (103)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (95)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (97)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (118)
- April 2026: 58.6% from 133 flights
- May 2026: 54.5% from 143 flights
- June 2026: 34.8% from 140 flights
- July 2026: 48.6% from 144 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 65.0% against 69.8% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,920 CLT → SFO 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