Route profile
MSP→CLT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Minneapolis to Charlotte, 930 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 60% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,758 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MSP → CLT arrives on time 80.7% of the time; the return trip, CLT → MSP, arrives on time 80.8% of the time.
MSP → CLT spends 29.5 minutes on the ground on a 930-mile trip: 17.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSP and 12.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLT.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 92% of 5,368 comparable routes.
81.2% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 80.7% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
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 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where MSP to CLT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MSP to CLT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 81.8% arrive on time, 14.8 points ahead of the 67.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14 points.
MSP to CLT struggles most at 6 PM: 61.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 6.3 points behind the 67.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
MSP to CLT holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 79.6% on time to their 74.0%, a 5.6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.8 points.
March is kinder to MSP to CLT than to routes of similar length: 82.0% on time against 76.6%, 5.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 4.1 points.
American Airlines does better on MSP to CLT than on its routes of similar length: 78.8% on time here, 74.0% there, 4.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 3.7 points.
MSP to CLT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 81.8% | routes of similar length | 67.0% | +14.8 pts | 570 here, 186,493 there |
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 61.5% | routes of similar length | 67.8% | −6.3 pts | 377 here, 187,500 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 79.6% | routes of similar length | 74.0% | +5.6 pts | 1,128 here, 434,931 there |
| Month: March | 82.0% | routes of similar length | 76.6% | +5.4 pts | 633 here, 254,802 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 78.8% | routes of similar length | 74.0% | +4.8 pts | 3,723 here, 524,123 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 930 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 MSP → CLT flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MSP → CLT cancelled 82 of 7,758 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 95. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 73.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 129 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 82 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.
60 cancellations, 73.2% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
21 cancellations, 25.6% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
1 cancellation, 1.2% 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.
82 coded cancellations were recorded on MSP → CLT; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
41 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 7,758 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLT after arriving from MSP.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.6% | 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 1.06% of the time and diverts 0.32% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,651 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 41 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,758 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MSP → CLT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.3% of the time, against 72.0% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 15.3 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 87.4% on time from 1,076 flights
- 7 AM: 85.9% on time from 596 flights
- 8 AM: 88.9% on time from 519 flights
- 9 AM: 87.7% on time from 205 flights
- 10 AM: 88.4% on time from 422 flights
- 11 AM: 76.7% on time from 178 flights
- 12 PM: 86.3% on time from 519 flights
- 1 PM: 80.3% on time from 1,157 flights
- 2 PM: 79.3% on time from 303 flights
- 3 PM: 77.7% on time from 734 flights
- 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 62.1% on time from 461 flights
- 6 PM: 61.5% on time from 381 flights
- 7 PM: 81.8% on time from 576 flights
- 8 PM: 75.7% on time from 505 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MSP → 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 MSP → 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,945 | 82.4% | 0.74% | -11 min | 6.7% |
| American Airlines | 3,788 | 78.8% | 1.40% | -9 min | 7.9% |
Delta Air Lines flew 51.0% of the 7,733 flights listed.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 3.6 percentage points more often than American Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
AA894 (6:00 AM) arrived on time 88.4% of the time, 10.4 points more often than DL2929 (7:45 PM) at 78.0%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 5.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 82.7%
- Feb: 85.1%
- Mar: 82.0%
- Apr: 81.5%
- May: 78.0%
- Jun: 75.4%
- Jul: 72.9%
- Aug: 80.0%
- Sep: 84.9%
- Oct: 84.0%
- Nov: 86.9%
- Dec: 78.2%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 14.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 79.4% from 202 flights
- August 2023: 79.7% from 229 flights
- September 2023: 83.6% from 214 flights
- October 2023: 85.9% from 228 flights
- November 2023: 89.5% from 200 flights
- December 2023: 85.6% from 181 flights
- January 2024: 80.6% from 175 flights
- February 2024: 86.7% from 166 flights
- March 2024: 81.3% from 206 flights
- April 2024: 83.7% from 210 flights
- May 2024: 72.6% from 217 flights
- June 2024: 73.7% from 209 flights
- July 2024: 61.2% from 213 flights
- August 2024: 76.2% from 238 flights
- September 2024: 82.3% from 228 flights
- October 2024: 82.0% from 217 flights
- November 2024: 88.4% from 232 flights
- December 2024: 80.7% from 224 flights
- January 2025: 87.1% from 199 flights
- February 2025: 86.3% from 184 flights
- March 2025: 84.9% from 233 flights
- April 2025: 79.3% from 227 flights
- May 2025: 75.6% from 234 flights
- June 2025: 73.3% from 220 flights
- July 2025: 73.4% from 224 flights
- August 2025: 84.4% from 214 flights
- September 2025: 89.3% from 205 flights
- October 2025: 83.9% from 223 flights
- November 2025: 82.4% from 188 flights
- December 2025: 67.9% from 184 flights
- January 2026: 80.0% from 191 flights
- February 2026: 82.3% from 179 flights
- March 2026: 79.3% from 207 flights
- April 2026: 81.7% from 197 flights
- May 2026: 85.8% from 223 flights
- June 2026: 79.1% from 211 flights
- July 2026: 77.1% from 226 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.2% against 80.7% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,758 MSP → 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