Route profile
IAD→CLE
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to Cleveland, 288 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 71% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,631 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAD → CLE arrives on time 84.0% of the time; the return trip, CLE → IAD, arrives on time 88.3% of the time, a 4.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
IAD → CLE spends 27.9 minutes on the ground on a 288-mile trip: 21.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAD and 6.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLE.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 91% of 2,692 comparable routes.
United Airlines (84.5% on time) and Republic Airways (82.7%) are close together here.
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 IAD to CLE differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAD to CLE is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 10 PM: 82.2% arrive on time, 12.3 points ahead of the 69.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.6 points.
IAD to CLE holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 84.8% on time to their 76.5%, a 8.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.6 points.
April is kinder to IAD to CLE than to routes of similar length: 92.1% on time against 80.6%, 11.5 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 12.2 points.
United Airlines does better on IAD to CLE than on its routes of similar length: 84.5% on time here, 78.8% there, 5.7 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.6 points.
IAD to CLE against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 82.2% | routes of similar length | 69.9% | +12.3 pts | 880 here, 22,501 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 84.8% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | +8.3 pts | 388 here, 115,311 there |
| Month: April | 92.1% | routes of similar length | 80.6% | +11.5 pts | 215 here, 62,849 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 84.5% | routes of similar length | 78.8% | +5.7 pts | 1,917 here, 54,720 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 288 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
30 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 2,631 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLE after arriving from IAD.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 15% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.9% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.7% | 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 1.18% of the time and diverts 0.23% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,594 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 30 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,631 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAD → CLE flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 94.5% of the time, against 75.9% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 18.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 94.5% on time from 492 flights
- 9 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 89.0% on time from 504 flights
- 1 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 75.4% on time from 665 flights
- 6 PM to 9 PM: too few flights to score
- 10 PM: 82.2% on time from 885 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IAD → 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for IAD → CLE. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on IAD → CLE, at 36.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 94.5% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 75.9%.
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 | 1,939 | 84.5% | 0.83% | -7 min | 5.9% |
| Republic Airways | 692 | 82.7% | 2.17% | -6 min | 6.8% |
United Airlines flew 73.7% of the 2,631 flights listed. Republic Airways cancelled 2.17% of its flights here against 0.83% for United Airlines.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 7.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.1%
- Feb: 87.5%
- Mar: 88.5%
- Apr: 92.1%
- May: 87.3%
- Jun: 80.5%
- Jul: 70.3%
- Aug: 81.4%
- Sep: 83.6%
- Oct: 92.1%
- Nov: 86.7%
- Dec: 79.5%
July is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 21.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (99)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (102)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (109)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (109)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (23)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (26)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (29)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (67)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (71)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (52)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (33)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (38)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (61)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (52)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (36)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (56)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (53)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (30)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (58)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (51)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (55)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (77)
- May 2025: 87.1% from 124 flights
- June 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (55)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (97)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (112)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (83)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (74)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (49)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (36)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (83)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (86)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (104)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (116)
- July 2026: 75.9% from 120 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.7% against 82.4% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,631 IAD → 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