Route profile
MCI→CLT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Kansas City to Charlotte, 808 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 34% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,029 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MCI → CLT arrives on time 78.4% of the time; the return trip, CLT → MCI, arrives on time 74.6% of the time, a 3.8-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MCI → CLT spends 30.5 minutes on the ground on an 808-mile trip: 15.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MCI and 15.1 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLT.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 93% of 4,467 comparable routes.
80.8% on time on the best day (Wednesday) against 76.1% on the worst (Sunday).
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where MCI to CLT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MCI to CLT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 75.1% arrive on time, 7.3 points ahead of the 67.8% those routes manage at that hour.
MCI to CLT struggles most at 11 AM: 76.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5.2 points behind the 81.7% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 4.5 points.
American Airlines does better on MCI to CLT than on its routes of similar length: 78.2% on time here, 74.2% there, 4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.1 points.
MCI to CLT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 75.1% | routes of similar length | 67.8% | +7.3 pts | 185 here, 132,943 there |
| Hour: 11 AM departures | 76.5% | routes of similar length | 81.7% | −5.2 pts | 456 here, 139,219 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 78.2% | routes of similar length | 74.2% | +4.0 pts | 3,914 here, 356,970 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 808 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 MCI → CLT flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MCI → CLT cancelled 60 of 4,029 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 67. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 83.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 81 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 60 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.
50 cancellations, 83.3% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
6 cancellations, 10.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
4 cancellations, 6.7% 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.
60 coded cancellations were recorded on MCI → CLT; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
44 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 4,029 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLT after arriving from MCI.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.1% | 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 1.49% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,962 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 44 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,029 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MCI → CLT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.6% of the time, against 64.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 24.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 91.1% on time from 233 flights
- 6 AM: 87.7% on time from 818 flights
- 7 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 76.5% on time from 459 flights
- 12 PM: 83.0% on time from 508 flights
- 1 PM to 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 73.8% on time from 561 flights
- 4 PM: 69.8% on time from 205 flights
- 5 PM: 75.1% on time from 193 flights
- 6 PM: 64.7% on time from 712 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MCI → CLT 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 MCI → CLT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MCI → CLT, at 47.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.6% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 64.6%.
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 | 3,979 | 78.2% | 1.46% | -5 min | 7.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 4.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.8%
- Feb: 81.8%
- Mar: 81.5%
- Apr: 81.2%
- May: 75.7%
- Jun: 69.6%
- Jul: 71.4%
- Aug: 74.3%
- Sep: 81.5%
- Oct: 84.9%
- Nov: 83.5%
- Dec: 80.4%
June is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 15.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (113)
- August 2023: 70.6% from 121 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (104)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (118)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (104)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (103)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (98)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (87)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (109)
- May 2024: 64.7% from 121 flights
- June 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (117)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- September 2024: 79.8% from 125 flights
- October 2024: 86.2% from 139 flights
- November 2024: 87.4% from 127 flights
- December 2024: 84.0% from 131 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (110)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (97)
- March 2025: 84.0% from 121 flights
- April 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (115)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (116)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (99)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (100)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (103)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (95)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (84)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (93)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (101)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (104)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (94)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.7% against 79.7% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,029 MCI → 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