Route profile
RSW→CLT
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Fort Myers to Charlotte, 600 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 50% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,928 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
RSW → CLT arrives on time 82.8% of the time; the return trip, CLT → RSW, arrives on time 75.5% of the time, a 7.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
RSW → CLT spends 26.5 minutes on the ground on a 600-mile trip: 15.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at RSW and 11.5 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 92% of 4,467 comparable routes.
84.2% on time on the best day (Wednesday) against 79.5% 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 RSW to CLT differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
RSW to CLT is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 AM: 96.9% arrive on time, 9.5 points ahead of the 87.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.1 points.
RSW to CLT holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 83.3% on time to their 76.3%, a 7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
May is kinder to RSW to CLT than to routes of similar length: 83.3% on time against 74.5%, 8.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.1 points.
American Airlines does better on RSW to CLT than on its routes of similar length: 82.7% on time here, 74.3% there, 8.4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 7.6 points.
RSW to CLT against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 96.9% | routes of similar length | 87.4% | +9.5 pts | 226 here, 145,650 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 83.3% | routes of similar length | 76.3% | +7.0 pts | 862 here, 299,652 there |
| Month: May | 83.3% | routes of similar length | 74.5% | +8.8 pts | 540 here, 169,683 there |
| Airline: American Airlines | 82.7% | routes of similar length | 74.3% | +8.4 pts | 5,763 here, 316,422 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 600 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 → CLT flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
RSW → CLT cancelled 102 of 5,928 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 58. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 82.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 71 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 102 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.
84 cancellations, 82.4% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
16 cancellations, 15.7% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
2 cancellations, 2.0% 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.
102 coded cancellations were recorded on RSW → CLT; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
38 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 5,928 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLT after arriving from RSW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 29% | High risk |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.4% | 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 1.72% of the time and diverts 0.25% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,811 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 38 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,928 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
RSW → CLT flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 95.2% of the time, against 70.1% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 25.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 94.6% on time from 736 flights
- 7 AM: 96.9% on time from 231 flights
- 8 AM: 95.0% on time from 524 flights
- 9 AM: 88.0% on time from 169 flights
- 10 AM: 89.0% on time from 596 flights
- 11 AM: 83.4% on time from 721 flights
- 12 PM: 85.0% on time from 133 flights
- 1 PM: 80.8% on time from 528 flights
- 2 PM: 79.4% on time from 202 flights
- 3 PM: 71.3% on time from 179 flights
- 4 PM: 66.6% on time from 563 flights
- 5 PM: 74.7% on time from 372 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 71.9% on time from 782 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why RSW → 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 RSW → CLT. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on RSW → CLT, at 55.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 95.2% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 70.1%.
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 | 5,877 | 82.7% | 1.68% | -9 min | 7.1% |
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: 86.2%
- Feb: 87.8%
- Mar: 80.7%
- Apr: 85.4%
- May: 83.3%
- Jun: 74.2%
- Jul: 67.1%
- Aug: 74.6%
- Sep: 84.5%
- Oct: 89.1%
- Nov: 89.4%
- Dec: 85.3%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 22.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (119)
- August 2023: 72.3% from 123 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (104)
- October 2023: 91.7% from 145 flights
- November 2023: 87.7% from 195 flights
- December 2023: 88.8% from 197 flights
- January 2024: 85.1% from 204 flights
- February 2024: 87.9% from 199 flights
- March 2024: 80.5% from 217 flights
- April 2024: 83.2% from 205 flights
- May 2024: 77.5% from 190 flights
- June 2024: 70.7% from 129 flights
- July 2024: 50.9% from 121 flights
- August 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (108)
- October 2024: 88.3% from 139 flights
- November 2024: 93.0% from 172 flights
- December 2024: 82.4% from 201 flights
- January 2025: 89.5% from 185 flights
- February 2025: 89.3% from 171 flights
- March 2025: 81.5% from 238 flights
- April 2025: 85.2% from 231 flights
- May 2025: 88.4% from 191 flights
- June 2025: 70.2% from 128 flights
- July 2025: 71.6% from 121 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- October 2025: 86.8% from 121 flights
- November 2025: 87.6% from 154 flights
- December 2025: 84.4% from 167 flights
- January 2026: 83.9% from 186 flights
- February 2026: 86.1% from 161 flights
- March 2026: 80.0% from 177 flights
- April 2026: 88.1% from 193 flights
- May 2026: 84.1% from 164 flights
- June 2026: too few flights to score (110)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (113)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 84.4% against 83.7% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,928 RSW → 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