Route profile
RSW→CLE
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Fort Myers to Cleveland, 1,025 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 48% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,122 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
RSW → CLE arrives on time 81.3% of the time; the return trip, CLE → RSW, arrives on time 83.0% of the time.
RSW → CLE spends 27.1 minutes on the ground on a 1,025-mile trip: 16.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at RSW and 10.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLE.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where RSW to CLE differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
RSW to CLE is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 80.5% arrive on time, 13.3 points ahead of the 67.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.9 points.
RSW to CLE holds up on Wednesdays better than routes of similar length do: 86.6% on time to their 79.6%, a 7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.8 points.
June is kinder to RSW to CLE than to routes of similar length: 89.2% on time against 71.5%, 17.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 16.5 points.
United Airlines does better on RSW to CLE than on its routes of similar length: 91.3% on time here, 80.5% there, 10.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 11.4 points.
RSW to CLE against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 80.5% | routes of similar length | 67.2% | +13.3 pts | 190 here, 174,035 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 86.6% | routes of similar length | 79.6% | +7.0 pts | 366 here, 376,221 there |
| Month: June | 89.2% | routes of similar length | 71.5% | +17.7 pts | 176 here, 220,192 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 91.3% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | +10.8 pts | 1,132 here, 377,207 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 1,025 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 RSW → CLE flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
RSW → CLE cancelled 57 of 3,122 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 55. The reason filed most often was the airline, 50.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 108 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 57 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
29 cancellations, 50.9% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
24 cancellations, 42.1% 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, 7.0% 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.
57 coded cancellations were recorded on RSW → CLE; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
41 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 3,122 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLE after arriving from RSW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 29% | High risk |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.2% | 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 1.83% of the time and diverts 0.10% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,062 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 3,122 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
RSW → CLE flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 86.6% of the time, against 72.5% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 14.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 87.2% on time from 180 flights
- 7 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 88.5% on time from 188 flights
- 10 AM: 86.2% on time from 360 flights
- 11 AM: 86.1% on time from 378 flights
- 12 PM: 82.3% on time from 244 flights
- 1 PM: 84.3% on time from 504 flights
- 2 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 68.7% on time from 217 flights
- 5 PM: 76.6% on time from 168 flights
- 6 PM: 80.5% on time from 199 flights
- 7 PM: 73.6% on time from 163 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why RSW → 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 RSW → CLE. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on RSW → CLE, at 61.0%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 86.6% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 72.5%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlines | 1,958 | 75.7% | 2.09% | -8 min | 9.4% |
| United Airlines | 1,149 | 91.3% | 1.39% | -16 min | 3.6% |
Frontier Airlines flew 63.0% of the 3,107 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 15.6 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 9.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.4%
- Feb: 78.1%
- Mar: 71.8%
- Apr: 87.5%
- May: 84.8%
- Jun: 89.2%
- Jul: 81.4%
- Aug: 84.2%
- Sep: 87.7%
- Oct: 89.8%
- Nov: 85.5%
- Dec: 75.5%
March is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 18.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (31)
- August 2023: too few flights to score (47)
- September 2023: too few flights to score (70)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (67)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (90)
- December 2023: 78.8% from 121 flights
- January 2024: 74.6% from 134 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (110)
- March 2024: 68.0% from 131 flights
- April 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (65)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (56)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (56)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (69)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (70)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (88)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (102)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (106)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (110)
- February 2025: 77.1% from 121 flights
- March 2025: 71.7% from 141 flights
- April 2025: 87.6% from 121 flights
- May 2025: too few flights to score (64)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (54)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (57)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (53)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (34)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (40)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (64)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (83)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (75)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (106)
- March 2026: 74.9% from 170 flights
- April 2026: too few flights to score (104)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (71)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (68)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (66)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.5% against 84.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,122 RSW → 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