Route profile
FLL→CLE
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Fort Lauderdale to Cleveland, 1,062 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 3,677 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
FLL → CLE arrives on time 74.0% of the time; the return trip, CLE → FLL, arrives on time 82.2% of the time, an 8.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
FLL → CLE spends 28.7 minutes on the ground on a 1,062-mile trip: 19.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at FLL and 9.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLE.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
The airline matters unusually much on this route, a wider carrier-to-carrier gap than 99% of 2,692 comparable routes.
United Airlines arrived on time 88.3% of the time, against 60.2% for Spirit Airlines, flying the exact same route.
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 FLL to CLE differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
FLL to CLE struggles most at 9 PM: 55.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 9.9 points behind the 65.5% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.9 points.
FLL to CLE is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 76.1% arrive on time, 8.6 points ahead of the 67.5% those routes manage at that hour.
In August, FLL to CLE runs 10.1 points below routes of similar length, 64.2% on time to 74.3%. Against all other routes the gap is 12.3 points.
Spirit Airlines’ flights on FLL to CLE arrive on time 60.2% of the time, 13.7 points below the 73.9% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 15.1 points.
United Airlines does better on FLL to CLE than on its routes of similar length: 88.3% on time here, 80.7% there, 7.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
FLL to CLE against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 55.6% | routes of similar length | 65.5% | −9.9 pts | 356 here, 76,978 there |
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 76.1% | routes of similar length | 67.5% | +8.6 pts | 197 here, 175,376 there |
| Month: August | 64.2% | routes of similar length | 74.3% | −10.1 pts | 226 here, 229,020 there |
| Airline: Spirit Airlines | 60.2% | routes of similar length | 73.9% | −13.7 pts | 1,050 here, 187,225 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 88.3% | routes of similar length | 80.7% | +7.6 pts | 1,508 here, 402,795 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 1,062 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 FLL → CLE flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
FLL → CLE cancelled 54 of 3,677 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 68. The reason filed most often was the airline, 48.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 141 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 54 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
26 cancellations, 48.1% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
23 cancellations, 42.6% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
5 cancellations, 9.3% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
54 coded cancellations were recorded on FLL → CLE; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
65 min late
against a median of 7 min early
FLL → CLE has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 7 min early, but the worst tenth are 72 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 3,677 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLE after arriving from FLL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 39% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 25% | High risk |
| 60 min | 18% | High risk |
| 90 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.8% | 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 1.47% of the time and diverts 0.11% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,619 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 65 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,677 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
FLL → CLE flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 87.1% of the time, against 57.3% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 29.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 79.7% on time from 120 flights
- 10 AM: 88.7% on time from 381 flights
- 11 AM: 87.8% on time from 379 flights
- 12 PM: 86.6% on time from 441 flights
- 1 PM: 69.4% on time from 274 flights
- 2 PM: 75.5% on time from 286 flights
- 3 PM: 68.4% on time from 230 flights
- 4 PM: 61.3% on time from 157 flights
- 5 PM: 76.1% on time from 199 flights
- 6 PM: 70.6% on time from 141 flights
- 7 PM: 68.5% on time from 234 flights
- 8 PM: 60.1% on time from 312 flights
- 9 PM: 55.6% on time from 361 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why FLL → CLE 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 FLL → CLE. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on FLL → CLE, at 47.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 87.1% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 57.3%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,520 | 88.3% | 0.66% | -13 min | 4.5% |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,069 | 60.2% | 1.59% | 4 min | 17.0% |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,064 | 67.7% | 2.44% | -1 min | 13.8% |
United Airlines flew 41.6% of the 3,653 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.44% of its flights here against 0.66% for United Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 28.1 percentage points more often than Spirit Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 74.8%
- Feb: 75.6%
- Mar: 71.2%
- Apr: 79.6%
- May: 77.1%
- Jun: 78.8%
- Jul: 66.3%
- Aug: 64.2%
- Sep: 78.4%
- Oct: 78.4%
- Nov: 79.0%
- Dec: 68.1%
August is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 15.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (92)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (92)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (108)
- October 2023: 73.3% from 121 flights
- November 2023: 66.4% from 122 flights
- December 2023: 63.4% from 153 flights
- January 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (105)
- March 2024: 70.0% from 120 flights
- April 2024: too few flights to score (101)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (95)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (69)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (83)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (74)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (69)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (58)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (68)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (108)
- February 2025: 83.3% from 120 flights
- March 2025: 78.8% from 148 flights
- April 2025: 82.5% from 120 flights
- May 2025: too few flights to score (82)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (61)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (60)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (68)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (56)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (69)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (83)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (92)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (110)
- February 2026: 68.1% from 121 flights
- March 2026: 64.7% from 160 flights
- April 2026: too few flights to score (108)
- May 2026: 88.8% from 126 flights
- June 2026: too few flights to score (111)
- July 2026: 71.0% from 135 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.4% against 80.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,677 FLL → CLE 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