Route profile
LAX→CLT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Los Angeles to Charlotte, 2,125 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 73% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 8,168 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
LAX → CLT arrives on time 83.6% of the time; the return trip, CLT → LAX, arrives on time 75.8% of the time, a 7.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LAX → CLT spends 30.5 minutes on the ground on a 2,125-mile trip: 17.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LAX and 12.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLT.
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 90% of 2,692 comparable routes.
American Airlines (83.7% on time) and Spirit Airlines (81.8%) 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 LAX to CLT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LAX to CLT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 87.9% arrive on time, 10.4 points ahead of the 77.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 18.5 points.
LAX to CLT struggles most at 9 AM: 75.9% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 6 points behind the 81.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
LAX to CLT holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 84.4% on time to their 78.4%, a 6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.2 points.
March is kinder to LAX to CLT than to routes of similar length: 86.8% on time against 79.0%, 7.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.9 points.
American Airlines does better on LAX to CLT than on its routes of similar length: 83.7% on time here, 77.9% there, 5.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 8.6 points.
LAX to CLT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 87.9% | routes of similar length | 77.5% | +10.4 pts | 604 here, 43,368 there |
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 75.9% | routes of similar length | 81.9% | −6.0 pts | 868 here, 70,730 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 84.4% | routes of similar length | 78.4% | +6.0 pts | 1,162 here, 148,182 there |
| Month: March | 86.8% | routes of similar length | 79.0% | +7.8 pts | 627 here, 81,287 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 83.7% | routes of similar length | 77.9% | +5.8 pts | 7,581 here, 219,738 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 2,125 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 LAX → CLT flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LAX → CLT cancelled 74 of 8,168 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 110. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 75.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 146 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 74 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.
56 cancellations, 75.7% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
15 cancellations, 20.3% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
3 cancellations, 4.1% 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.
74 coded cancellations were recorded on LAX → CLT; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
30 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 8,168 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLT after arriving from LAX.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 32% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.8% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.4% | 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 0.91% of the time and diverts 0.28% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 8,071 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 8,168 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LAX → CLT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.1% of the time, against 77.2% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 10.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM: 87.2% on time from 197 flights
- 1 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 90.5% on time from 1,158 flights
- 7 AM: 92.4% on time from 706 flights
- 8 AM: 78.2% on time from 570 flights
- 9 AM: 75.9% on time from 876 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 79.2% on time from 878 flights
- 12 PM: 80.5% on time from 159 flights
- 1 PM: 74.5% on time from 656 flights
- 2 PM: 81.6% on time from 287 flights
- 3 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 87.9% on time from 608 flights
- 10 PM: 84.7% on time from 1,117 flights
- 11 PM: 85.1% on time from 836 flights
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why LAX → CLT 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 LAX → CLT. 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 | 7,660 | 83.7% | 0.78% | -9 min | 5.7% |
| Spirit Airlines | 508 | 81.8% | 2.76% | -7 min | 4.9% |
American Airlines flew 93.8% of the 8,168 flights listed. Spirit Airlines cancelled 2.76% of its flights here against 0.78% for American 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 Friday the least, a gap of 5.0 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.1%
- Feb: 88.2%
- Mar: 86.8%
- Apr: 87.1%
- May: 80.2%
- Jun: 75.9%
- Jul: 76.3%
- Aug: 80.5%
- Sep: 90.2%
- Oct: 87.6%
- Nov: 85.0%
- Dec: 84.8%
June is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 14.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 77.5% from 244 flights
- August 2023: 74.6% from 248 flights
- September 2023: 90.4% from 188 flights
- October 2023: 86.4% from 236 flights
- November 2023: 85.0% from 234 flights
- December 2023: 87.6% from 226 flights
- January 2024: 84.7% from 236 flights
- February 2024: 90.6% from 225 flights
- March 2024: 86.1% from 238 flights
- April 2024: 90.1% from 234 flights
- May 2024: 74.0% from 248 flights
- June 2024: 75.6% from 264 flights
- July 2024: 77.4% from 274 flights
- August 2024: 79.5% from 273 flights
- September 2024: 91.1% from 264 flights
- October 2024: 85.4% from 262 flights
- November 2024: 92.2% from 231 flights
- December 2024: 89.2% from 241 flights
- January 2025: 95.2% from 213 flights
- February 2025: 91.1% from 180 flights
- March 2025: 90.6% from 214 flights
- April 2025: 81.9% from 210 flights
- May 2025: 81.9% from 216 flights
- June 2025: 68.4% from 248 flights
- July 2025: 75.7% from 249 flights
- August 2025: 89.2% from 197 flights
- September 2025: 88.7% from 186 flights
- October 2025: 91.7% from 205 flights
- November 2025: 76.4% from 192 flights
- December 2025: 76.0% from 196 flights
- January 2026: 75.5% from 165 flights
- February 2026: 81.3% from 153 flights
- March 2026: 83.0% from 179 flights
- April 2026: 89.4% from 180 flights
- May 2026: 86.2% from 197 flights
- June 2026: 85.1% from 209 flights
- July 2026: 74.3% from 213 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 83.1% against 84.9% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 8,168 LAX → CLT 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