Route profile
CMH→BWI
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Columbus to Baltimore, 337 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 93% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,335 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CMH → BWI arrives on time 88.6% of the time; the return trip, BWI → CMH, arrives on time 74.9% of the time, a 13.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CMH → BWI spends 17.1 minutes on the ground on a 337-mile trip: 11.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CMH and 5.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at BWI.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route stays close to typical even on its worst days, a smaller gap than 96% of 4,598 comparable routes.
A typical arrival is 9 min early, and the worst tenth are only 27 minutes worse than that.
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 4,598 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where CMH to BWI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CMH to BWI is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 3 PM: 89.6% arrive on time, 13.7 points ahead of the 75.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 16.9 points.
CMH to BWI holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 88.2% on time to their 77.3%, a 10.9 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 12 points.
June is kinder to CMH to BWI than to routes of similar length: 87.1% on time against 74.8%, 12.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 14.4 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on CMH to BWI than on its routes of similar length: 88.6% on time here, 81.1% there, 7.5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 11.2 points.
CMH to BWI against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 3 PM departures | 89.6% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +13.7 pts | 173 here, 65,078 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 88.2% | routes of similar length | 77.3% | +10.9 pts | 485 here, 165,677 there |
| Month: June | 87.1% | routes of similar length | 74.8% | +12.3 pts | 264 here, 88,810 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 88.6% | routes of similar length | 81.1% | +7.5 pts | 3,294 here, 373,404 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 337 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
18 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 3,335 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BWI after arriving from CMH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 25% | High risk |
| 45 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 6.6% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.9% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.4% | 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 1.05% 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 3,294 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 18 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,335 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CMH → BWI flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 96.6% of the time, against 69.7% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 26.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 97.0% on time from 478 flights
- 6 AM: 96.4% on time from 530 flights
- 7 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 96.2% on time from 159 flights
- 10 AM: 93.2% on time from 295 flights
- 11 AM: 95.4% on time from 239 flights
- 12 PM: 90.1% on time from 234 flights
- 1 PM to 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 89.6% on time from 175 flights
- 4 PM: 77.4% on time from 335 flights
- 5 PM: 74.1% on time from 301 flights
- 6 PM: 70.1% on time from 148 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why CMH → BWI 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 CMH → BWI. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on CMH → BWI, at 57.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 96.6% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 69.7%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 3,335 | 88.6% | 1.05% | -9 min | 3.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 5.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 89.9%
- Feb: 87.6%
- Mar: 87.7%
- Apr: 92.7%
- May: 86.8%
- Jun: 87.1%
- Jul: 82.1%
- Aug: 87.8%
- Sep: 91.8%
- Oct: 92.3%
- Nov: 89.7%
- Dec: 88.3%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 10.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 87.5% against 90.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.1 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,335 CMH → BWI 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