Airport month record

CLEDEC

Cleveland Hopkins International in December 2025

Departures: 3,252
Month: December 2025
National, same month: 73.2%
Carriers: 10

Historical statistics for December 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s December. For today’s conditions at CLE, see live FAA status.

CLE in December sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 73.2%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 3,252 flights, of which United Airlines flew 696 at 78.2% on time.

United Airlines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 78.2% on time across 696 flights.

On time

71.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,146 completed departures

Avg delay

76 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

3.20%

Nationally in December: 1.55%

Whole year

79.6%

CLE across all twelve months

These figures cover 3,252 departures from Cleveland Hopkins International in December 2025. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

December next to CLE's other months

Against CLE's own year, December ran 8 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 79.6%, which makes it the worst of the twelve months in the data. Either side of it, November ran 78.8% on time and January 74.2%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.

CLE month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	3,564	75.7%	90 min	3.84%	B−
August 2025	3,492	81.8%	76 min	1.80%	B
September 2025	3,240	85.8%	82 min	0.62%	A+
October 2025	3,467	82.0%	74 min	0.46%	B+
November 2025	3,237	78.8%	84 min	2.35%	B
December 2025 (this page)	3,252	71.2%	76 min	3.20%	C−
January 2026	2,874	74.2%	79 min	5.32%	C−
February 2026	2,770	81.1%	82 min	2.17%	B
March 2026	3,530	76.6%	93 min	3.63%	B−
April 2026	3,498	83.7%	76 min	1.00%	B
May 2026	3,745	84.4%	78 min	0.96%	B+
June 2026	3,675	78.7%	83 min	2.23%	B

Departure window

The best time of day to leave CLE in December

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 22 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am847 flights78.3%
8am–11am476 flights75.9%
11am–2pm593 flights73.6%
2pm–5pm598 flights65.7%
5pm–8pm542 flights64.3%
8pm–5am196 flights56.3%

Scale runs 50% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 56.3% on time, against 78.3% 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 847 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 55.8%. 25 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at CLE in December

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 78.2% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 65.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 516 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at CLE in December 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
United Airlines	696	78.2%	68 min	0.29%	B+
Frontier Airlines	516	65.8%	84 min	3.49%	C−
Republic Airways	481	69.8%	67 min	6.24%	C−
Southwest Airlines	456	78.0%	66 min	0.22%	B+
American Airlinesthin sample	281	76.3%	62 min	1.07%	B
Delta Air Linesthin sample	265	77.5%	79 min	4.15%	B−
PSA Airlinesthin sample	182	60.0%	102 min	9.34%	D−
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	158	57.1%	101 min	6.96%	D−
Envoy Airthin sample	107	57.0%	69 min	6.54%	D−
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	58	57.4%	82 min	6.90%	D−

Republic Airways cancels 6.2% 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

Busiest routes out of CLE in December

Routes from CLE in December 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
CLE to ORD · Chicagothin sample	361	66.6%	76 min	4.71%	C−
CLE to ATL · Atlantathin sample	271	79.3%	83 min	4.80%	B−
CLE to EWR · Newarkthin sample	192	72.0%	65 min	5.21%	C−
CLE to MCO · Orlandothin sample	173	69.8%	80 min	0.58%	C+
CLE to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	172	68.6%	77 min	7.56%	C−
CLE to DEN · Denverthin sample	166	77.0%	57 min	0.60%	B+
CLE to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	146	78.5%	63 min	1.37%	B
CLE to BOS · Bostonthin sample	140	67.2%	73 min	4.29%	C−
CLE to CLT · Charlottethin sample	139	71.3%	79 min	2.16%	C
CLE to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	119	59.1%	111 min	7.56%	D−
CLE to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	94	81.7%	86 min	1.06%	B
CLE to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	92	76.1%	83 min	0.00%	B+
CLE to MDW · Chicagothin sample	89	82.0%	58 min	0.00%	B+
CLE to DTW · Detroitthin sample	88	57.0%	122 min	2.27%	D
CLE to MIA · Miamithin sample	88	71.8%	71 min	3.41%	C−
CLE to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample	85	69.9%	76 min	2.35%	C
CLE to TPA · Tampathin sample	83	77.5%	55 min	3.61%	B−
CLE to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	80	59.5%	56 min	1.25%	D
CLE to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	76	75.3%	95 min	3.95%	B−
CLE to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	76	80.3%	60 min	0.00%	B+
CLE to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	75	81.3%	45 min	0.00%	B+
CLE to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	75	59.7%	103 min	4.00%	D−
CLE to IAH · Houstonthin sample	61	80.3%	34 min	0.00%	B+
CLE to STL · St. Louisthin sample	57	77.2%	69 min	0.00%	B+
CLE to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	52	75.0%	93 min	0.00%	B+

Delay causes

What held CLE up in December

Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 69,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
40%
National Airspace System
29%
Carrier
26%
Extreme weather
5%
Security
0%

40% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 69,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 68,804 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations run at 3.20%, against 1.55% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.

For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 10.0% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.

What to do with this

Flying from CLE in December

For a December trip through CLE: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 78.3% on time, and with 11.5% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in September would.

Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE), the whole year
CLE in July75.7%
CLE in August81.8%
CLE in September85.8%
CLE in October82.0%
CLE in November78.8%
CLE in January74.2%
CLE in February81.1%
CLE in March76.6%
CLE in April83.7%
CLE in May84.4%
CLE in June78.7%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures