Carrier performance at one airport
UA→CLE
United Airlines at Cleveland Hopkins International
- Departures
- 8,857
- Period
- July 2025 to June 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 77.6%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs a little over an hour. That rests on 8,857 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,464 at 87.9% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, United Airlines runs 5 points ahead of the 79.6% 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
84.7%
8,767 completed departures
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.84%
At CLE, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 11 carriers clearing the floor at CLE
These figures cover 8,857 flights between July 2025 and June 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 87.9% of the time; Alaska Airlines manages 63.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 456 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,464 | 87.9% | 75 min | 1.65% | A |
| United Airlines (this page) | 8,857 | 84.7% | 78 min | 0.84% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 5,407 | 82.1% | 57 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 4,849 | 79.6% | 73 min | 4.66% | B− |
| American Airlines | 4,367 | 78.8% | 100 min | 2.24% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 6,349 | 75.4% | 82 min | 1.56% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,993 | 74.0% | 107 min | 2.41% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 818 | 73.8% | 75 min | 2.20% | C |
| Envoy Air | 1,105 | 70.6% | 68 min | 3.98% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 2,342 | 69.9% | 108 min | 8.03% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 456 | 63.1% | 52 min | 2.19% | D |
PSA Airlines cancels 8.0% 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 | 2,173 | 77.0% | 75 min | 1.47% | B |
| CLE to EWR · Newark | 1,426 | 79.8% | 108 min | 2.10% | B |
| CLE to DEN · Denver | 942 | 88.1% | 64 min | 0.11% | A+ |
| CLE to IAH · Houston | 823 | 90.0% | 58 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| CLE to IAD · Washington | 712 | 88.0% | 87 min | 0.28% | A+ |
| CLE to LAX · Los Angeles | 647 | 89.0% | 50 min | 0.15% | A+ |
| CLE to SFO · San Francisco | 587 | 86.5% | 70 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| CLE to MCO · Orlando | 562 | 89.4% | 69 min | 0.36% | A+ |
| CLE to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 506 | 90.4% | 68 min | 0.79% | A+ |
| CLE to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample | 348 | 93.6% | 60 min | 0.57% | A+ |
| CLE to TPA · Tampathin sample | 131 | 93.1% | 62 min | 0.00% | A+ |
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 31 points, against 25 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,636 flights92.3%
- 8am–11am2,086 flights90.0%
- 11am–2pm958 flights84.2%
- 2pm–5pm1,865 flights82.7%
- 5pm–8pm1,080 flights61.3%
- 8pm–5am232 flights77.5%
Scale runs 55% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.3% on time, against 92.3% 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 2,636 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. May was the busiest month here, with 818 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 51%National Airspace System
- 28%Late-arriving aircraft
- 19%Carrier
- 2%Extreme weather
51% 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 53,000 minutes out of 105,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 104,781 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.84%, below the national 1.81% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
5.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the a little over an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The sample behind these figures is 8,857 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 61.3% on time against 92.3% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 31 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 8,767 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 seven arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.3% of the 8,857 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% 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 87.9% on time across 3,464 flights. Alaska Airlines is at the other end on 63.1%, 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 92.3% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 61.3%, 31 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
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.