Carrier performance at one airport
UA→CLE
United Airlines at Cleveland Hopkins International
- Departures
- 8,949
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 11
- Rank here
- #2 of 11
United Airlines at Cleveland earns a B+. More than four flights in five arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 7 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 8,949 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,534 at 87.4% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, United Airlines runs 5 points ahead of the 79.3% weighted average across all carriers at CLE. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
84.2%
8,846 completed departures
Avg delay
81 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.92%
At CLE, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 11 carriers clearing the floor at CLE
These figures cover 8,949 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 9 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Against the competition
Every carrier at CLE, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.4% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 62.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 461 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,534 | 87.4% | 77 min | 1.73% | A |
| United Airlines (this page) | 8,949 | 84.2% | 81 min | 0.92% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 5,439 | 80.5% | 56 min | 0.64% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 4,369 | 79.8% | 96 min | 1.83% | B |
| Republic Airways | 4,848 | 79.3% | 78 min | 5.36% | B− |
| Frontier Airlines | 6,400 | 75.5% | 84 min | 1.84% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 880 | 75.1% | 79 min | 4.66% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,931 | 74.1% | 102 min | 2.12% | C |
| Envoy Air | 1,226 | 71.8% | 71 min | 3.67% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 2,299 | 68.6% | 109 min | 8.31% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 461 | 62.7% | 53 min | 1.52% | D |
PSA Airlines cancels 8.3% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where United Airlines flies from CLE
United Airlines operates 11 routes out of CLE with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLE to ORD · Chicago | 2,181 | 75.6% | 79 min | 1.47% | B |
| CLE to EWR · Newark | 1,444 | 79.8% | 107 min | 2.49% | B |
| CLE to DEN · Denver | 940 | 87.5% | 69 min | 0.11% | A+ |
| CLE to IAH · Houston | 814 | 90.8% | 63 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| CLE to IAD · Washington | 796 | 87.6% | 101 min | 0.38% | A+ |
| CLE to LAX · Los Angeles | 640 | 88.1% | 47 min | 0.31% | A+ |
| CLE to SFO · San Francisco | 573 | 87.1% | 68 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| CLE to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 551 | 89.9% | 70 min | 0.73% | A+ |
| CLE to MCO · Orlando | 543 | 89.8% | 70 min | 0.37% | A+ |
| CLE to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample | 336 | 91.9% | 61 min | 0.60% | A+ |
| CLE to TPA · Tampathin sample | 131 | 93.1% | 62 min | 0.00% | A+ |
Flight by flight
United Airlines flight numbers from CLE
10 United Airlines flight numbers leaving CLE flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 29 points, against 25 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am2,536 flights91.9%
- 8am–11am2,098 flights88.8%
- 11am–2pm1,100 flights84.1%
- 2pm–5pm1,870 flights82.4%
- 5pm–8pm1,142 flights62.6%
- 8pm–5am203 flights79.0%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 62.6% on time, against 91.9% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,536 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 78.2% on time, against 89.9% in February. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. August was the busiest month here, with 842 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 53%National Airspace System
- 27%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%Carrier
- 2%Extreme weather
53% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 60,000 minutes out of 113,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 112,628 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 0.92% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.23%.
6.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 8,949 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 62.6% on time against 91.9% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 29 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 8,846 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
United Airlines at CLE
How often is United Airlines at CLE delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.8% of the 8,949 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on United Airlines at CLE?
Delta Air Lines leads at 87.4% on time across 3,534 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 62.7%, a gap of 25 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on United Airlines at CLE?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 62.6%, 29 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are December delays on United Airlines at CLE?
December is the weakest month at 78.2% on time, compared with 89.9% in February. Across the year that is 12 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE) all carriers
- CLE to ORD route record75.6%
- CLE to EWR route record79.8%
- CLE to DEN route record87.5%
- CLE to IAH route record90.8%
- Do airlines run better at their own hubs?
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.