Route profile
CMH→PHX
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Columbus to Phoenix, 1,670 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 80% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,422 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CMH → PHX arrives on time 85.8% of the time; the return trip, PHX → CMH, arrives on time 73.9% of the time, a 12.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
CMH → PHX spends 22.1 minutes on the ground on a 1,670-mile trip: 14.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CMH and 7.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at PHX.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 96% of 3,357 comparable routes.
90.3% on time in its best month (September) against 80.9% in its worst (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 CMH to PHX differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CMH to PHX is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 82.3% arrive on time, 11.6 points ahead of the 70.7% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.5 points.
CMH to PHX holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 87.6% on time to their 76.3%, a 11.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 11.4 points.
July is kinder to CMH to PHX than to routes of similar length: 84.3% on time against 69.9%, 14.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 14.6 points.
American Airlines does better on CMH to PHX than on its routes of similar length: 87.4% on time here, 75.9% there, 11.5 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 12.3 points.
CMH to PHX against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 82.3% | routes of similar length | 70.7% | +11.6 pts | 610 here, 100,297 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 87.6% | routes of similar length | 76.3% | +11.3 pts | 508 here, 221,751 there |
| Month: July | 84.3% | routes of similar length | 69.9% | +14.4 pts | 388 here, 176,540 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 87.4% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +11.5 pts | 1,805 here, 272,304 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 1,670 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
26 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 3,422 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at PHX after arriving from CMH.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 30% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.6% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.0% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 3.2% | 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 0.76% of the time and diverts 0.15% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,391 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 26 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,422 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CMH → PHX flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.2% of the time, against 74.3% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 16.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 95.3% on time from 405 flights
- 6 AM: 92.8% on time from 364 flights
- 7 AM: 89.4% on time from 899 flights
- 8 AM: 89.1% on time from 271 flights
- 9 AM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 73.3% on time from 161 flights
- 5 PM: 82.3% on time from 614 flights
- 6 PM: 79.6% on time from 335 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why CMH → PHX runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 → PHX. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 | 1,824 | 87.4% | 0.82% | -11 min | 5.6% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,598 | 84.0% | 0.69% | -7 min | 4.2% |
American Airlines flew 53.3% of the 3,422 flights listed.
American Airlines arrived on time 3.4 percentage points more often than Southwest 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| AA1958 American Airlines | 7:40 AM | 1,058 | 88.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 7.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.8%
- Feb: 87.5%
- Mar: 87.1%
- Apr: 82.5%
- May: 84.2%
- Jun: 80.9%
- Jul: 84.3%
- Aug: 86.9%
- Sep: 90.3%
- Oct: 89.2%
- Nov: 87.0%
- Dec: 86.1%
June is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 9.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (96)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (91)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (84)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (65)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (85)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (96)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (86)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (83)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (97)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (96)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (88)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (88)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (56)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (52)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (105)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (96)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (102)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (81)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (75)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (104)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (78)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (73)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (107)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (95)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (100)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (83)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (75)
- March 2026: 84.8% from 128 flights
- April 2026: too few flights to score (110)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (111)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (95)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (93)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.3% against 87.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,422 CMH → PHX 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