Route profile
SEA→CMH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Seattle to Columbus, 2,016 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 85% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,481 flights. How this is calculated
SEA → CMH arrives on time 78.3% of the time; the return trip, CMH → SEA, arrives on time 77.2% of the time.
SEA → CMH spends 30.0 minutes on the ground on a 2,016-mile trip: 24.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SEA and 5.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at CMH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where SEA to CMH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SEA to CMH struggles most at 9 PM: 58.5% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 16.2 points behind the 74.7% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11 points.
In September, SEA to CMH runs 8.9 points below routes of similar length, 74.2% on time to 83.1%. Against all other routes the gap is 8.2 points.
July is kinder to SEA to CMH than to routes of similar length: 77.5% on time against 70.3%, 7.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
SEA to CMH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 58.5% | routes of similar length | 74.7% | −16.2 pts | 123 here, 38,279 there |
| Month: September | 74.2% | routes of similar length | 83.1% | −8.9 pts | 159 here, 89,214 there |
| Month: July | 77.5% | routes of similar length | 70.3% | +7.2 pts | 244 here, 134,276 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 2,016 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
30 min late
against a median of 2 min early
Percentiles over 1,481 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CMH after arriving from SEA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 45% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 10.0% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 2.7% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 1.2% | 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 0.54% of the time and diverts 0.41% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,467 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 30 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,481 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why SEA → CMH 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SEA → CMH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska Airlines | 1,477 | 78.3% | 0.54% | -2 min | 2.7% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| AS450 Alaska Airlines | 10:00 AM | 1,042 | 79.9% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 11.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.5% against 72.3% in the 12 months before — improving by 8.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,481 SEA → CMH 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