Route profile
RDU→CLT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Raleigh–Durham to Charlotte, 130 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 39% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 10,401 flights. How this is calculated
RDU → CLT arrives on time 78.8% of the time; the return trip, CLT → RDU, arrives on time 74.2% of the time, a 4.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
RDU → CLT spends 29.1 minutes on the ground on a 130-mile trip: 19.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at RDU and 9.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLT.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Why RDU → CLT flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
RDU → CLT cancelled 164 of 10,401 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 63. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 83.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 76 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 164 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.
137 cancellations, 83.5% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
23 cancellations, 14.0% 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, 2.4% 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.
164 coded cancellations were recorded on RDU → CLT; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
42 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 10,401 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLT after arriving from RDU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 37% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.3% | 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 1.58% of the time and diverts 0.03% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 10,234 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 42 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 10,401 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
RDU → CLT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.4% of the time, against 64.4% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 24.0 percentage points.
By day and hour
On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (RDU).
Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 9.9 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.3 points.
| Hour | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
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On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time
- 50–59
- 60–69
- 70–79
- 80–89
- 90–99
- Fewer than 120 flights, not scored
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.
No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures after 9 PM (5 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.
View as tableHide table
| Hour | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 AM–6 AM | 95.7% on time142 flights | 110 flights, too few to score | 93.5% on time125 flights | 98.6% on time145 flights | 94.2% on time142 flights | 96.3% on time137 flights | 93.5% on time141 flights |
| 6 AM–7 AM | 83 flights, too few to score | 95 flights, too few to score | 85 flights, too few to score | 78 flights, too few to score | 88 flights, too few to score | 91 flights, too few to score | 78 flights, too few to score |
| 7 AM–8 AM | 76.3% on time133 flights | 117 flights, too few to score | 118 flights, too few to score | 81.5% on time128 flights | 86.7% on time123 flights | 85.7% on time120 flights | 83.7% on time132 flights |
| 8 AM–9 AM | 36 flights, too few to score | 30 flights, too few to score | 43 flights, too few to score | 35 flights, too few to score | 41 flights, too few to score | 49 flights, too few to score | 39 flights, too few to score |
| 9 AM–10 AM | 73.8% on time123 flights | 109 flights, too few to score | 112 flights, too few to score | 78.7% on time137 flights | 81.1% on time124 flights | 69.0% on time127 flights | 82.6% on time135 flights |
| 10 AM–11 AM | 57 flights, too few to score | 72 flights, too few to score | 59 flights, too few to score | 45 flights, too few to score | 58 flights, too few to score | 32 flights, too few to score | 42 flights, too few to score |
| 11 AM–12 PM | 87.9% on time142 flights | 94.3% on time123 flights | 90.1% on time133 flights | 84.8% on time152 flights | 84.8% on time141 flights | 87.7% on time130 flights | 86.4% on time155 flights |
| 12 PM–1 PM | 82.7% on time140 flights | 88.0% on time151 flights | 80.7% on time135 flights | 78.2% on time133 flights | 81.3% on time140 flights | 80.7% on time121 flights | 78.2% on time135 flights |
| 1 PM–2 PM | 35 flights, too few to score | 28 flights, too few to score | 45 flights, too few to score | 31 flights, too few to score | 35 flights, too few to score | 30 flights, too few to score | 31 flights, too few to score |
| 2 PM–3 PM | 110 flights, too few to score | 115 flights, too few to score | 110 flights, too few to score | 116 flights, too few to score | 114 flights, too few to score | 108 flights, too few to score | 70.0% on time120 flights |
| 3 PM–4 PM | 55 flights, too few to score | 55 flights, too few to score | 58 flights, too few to score | 40 flights, too few to score | 52 flights, too few to score | 40 flights, too few to score | 42 flights, too few to score |
| 4 PM–5 PM | 73.2% on time143 flights | 117 flights, too few to score | 74.2% on time130 flights | 68.2% on time149 flights | 61.2% on time140 flights | 75.9% on time142 flights | 66.4% on time154 flights |
| 5 PM–6 PM | 24 flights, too few to score | 43 flights, too few to score | 32 flights, too few to score | 11 flights, too few to score | 23 flights, too few to score | 13 flights, too few to score | 10 flights, too few to score |
| 6 PM–7 PM | 67.7% on time137 flights | 107 flights, too few to score | 62.0% on time122 flights | 69.0% on time144 flights | 61.5% on time137 flights | 60.6% on time132 flights | 59.7% on time150 flights |
| 7 PM–8 PM | 40 flights, too few to score | 50 flights, too few to score | 41 flights, too few to score | 27 flights, too few to score | 39 flights, too few to score | 27 flights, too few to score | 27 flights, too few to score |
| 8 PM–9 PM | 62.0% on time139 flights | 75 flights, too few to score | 97 flights, too few to score | 57.9% on time145 flights | 67.7% on time136 flights | 67.5% on time126 flights | 60.7% on time150 flights |
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 95.2% on time from 942 flights
- 6 AM: 89.0% on time from 598 flights
- 7 AM: 82.1% on time from 871 flights
- 8 AM: 83.6% on time from 273 flights
- 9 AM: 79.0% on time from 867 flights
- 10 AM: 91.4% on time from 365 flights
- 11 AM: 87.8% on time from 976 flights
- 12 PM: 81.5% on time from 955 flights
- 1 PM: 84.4% on time from 235 flights
- 2 PM: 75.6% on time from 793 flights
- 3 PM: 77.0% on time from 342 flights
- 4 PM: 69.7% on time from 975 flights
- 5 PM: 68.9% on time from 156 flights
- 6 PM: 62.8% on time from 929 flights
- 7 PM: 70.5% on time from 251 flights
- 8 PM: 64.3% on time from 868 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why RDU → 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 RDU → CLT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on RDU → CLT, at 55.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.4% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 64.4%.
How this route holds up in bad weather
July 2023 – July 2026
The harder-hit end is CLT, where the flight lands. Its figure counts departures from CLT, so it says more about how that airport copes than about this route. Bad weather cancels 4.6 times the normal rate at CLT against 2.6 times at RDU. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: RDU 4.1% against 1.6%, CLT 5.7% against 1.2%. Flights that did leave CLT in bad weather arrived on time 63.5% of the time, against 75.9% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | RDU | CLT |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 4.1% | 5.7% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.6% | 1.2% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 74.9% | 63.5% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 79.9% | 75.9% |
| Departures in bad weather | 16,672 | 55,311 |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from RDU and CLT, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad.
Weather source and limits. In full: RDU, CLT, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.
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 | 10,367 | 78.8% | 1.56% | -6 min | 7.4% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.4 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.1%
- Feb: 86.4%
- Mar: 83.5%
- Apr: 81.2%
- May: 75.4%
- Jun: 72.7%
- Jul: 66.9%
- Aug: 75.9%
- Sep: 81.6%
- Oct: 82.8%
- Nov: 84.4%
- Dec: 79.6%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 19.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 73.2% from 280 flights
- August 2023: 76.6% from 280 flights
- September 2023: 81.5% from 243 flights
- October 2023: 85.5% from 269 flights
- November 2023: 84.4% from 263 flights
- December 2023: 82.7% from 272 flights
- January 2024: 76.3% from 300 flights
- February 2024: 86.6% from 283 flights
- March 2024: 80.7% from 302 flights
- April 2024: 73.1% from 316 flights
- May 2024: 61.8% from 357 flights
- June 2024: 67.8% from 328 flights
- July 2024: 56.5% from 331 flights
- August 2024: 68.9% from 322 flights
- September 2024: 78.0% from 280 flights
- October 2024: 78.7% from 319 flights
- November 2024: 82.5% from 274 flights
- December 2024: 80.5% from 292 flights
- January 2025: 88.9% from 306 flights
- February 2025: 87.5% from 274 flights
- March 2025: 84.2% from 307 flights
- April 2025: 81.9% from 283 flights
- May 2025: 83.0% from 296 flights
- June 2025: 72.6% from 287 flights
- July 2025: 71.2% from 292 flights
- August 2025: 83.5% from 264 flights
- September 2025: 85.7% from 245 flights
- October 2025: 85.0% from 260 flights
- November 2025: 86.7% from 244 flights
- December 2025: 75.4% from 261 flights
- January 2026: 76.6% from 223 flights
- February 2026: 84.9% from 216 flights
- March 2026: 85.9% from 273 flights
- April 2026: 90.3% from 259 flights
- May 2026: 85.0% from 267 flights
- June 2026: 78.7% from 266 flights
- July 2026: 67.8% from 267 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.1% against 79.7% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 10,401 RDU → 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