Charlotte, NC · departure reliability
CLT
Charlotte Douglas International
- Departures
- 181,003
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 10
- US rank
- #7 by volume
Charlotte
Charlotte Douglas International lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 181,003 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 5,482 at 85.6% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the ten carriers covered here at 85.6% on time across 5,482 flights.
Key figures
On time
76.1%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
73 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.06%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
85.6% on time here
These figures cover 181,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of CLT
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 85.6% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 68.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 3,341 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 113,776 | 75.5% | 70 min | 1.70% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 38,800 | 75.2% | 73 min | 2.64% | B |
| Envoy Air | 5,813 | 83.4% | 60 min | 1.72% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 5,482 | 85.6% | 84 min | 1.37% | A |
| Republic Airways | 3,975 | 81.5% | 88 min | 4.28% | B− |
| Frontier Airlines | 3,341 | 68.3% | 98 min | 4.49% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines | 3,248 | 76.7% | 55 min | 1.63% | B |
| United Airlines | 2,265 | 81.8% | 84 min | 1.77% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,106 | 74.6% | 68 min | 5.27% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,037 | 74.2% | 148 min | 2.95% | C |
Spirit Airlines cancels 5.3% 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
Busiest routes out of CLT
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from CLT, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 76.1%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLT to MCO · Orlando | 4,734 | 71.6% | 77 min | 2.26% | C |
| CLT to ORD · Chicago | 4,489 | 72.4% | 85 min | 2.83% | C |
| CLT to ATL · Atlanta | 4,383 | 81.3% | 76 min | 1.96% | B |
| CLT to LGA · New York | 4,193 | 71.5% | 82 min | 4.41% | C− |
| CLT to BOS · Boston | 4,006 | 76.0% | 69 min | 2.47% | B |
| CLT to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,904 | 77.7% | 70 min | 2.25% | B |
| CLT to MIA · Miami | 3,731 | 77.0% | 83 min | 1.80% | B |
| CLT to EWR · Newark | 3,690 | 75.9% | 83 min | 4.47% | B− |
| CLT to PHL · Philadelphia | 3,537 | 77.2% | 82 min | 3.03% | B− |
| CLT to BNA · Nashville | 3,480 | 75.1% | 68 min | 1.58% | B |
| CLT to DTW · Detroit | 3,475 | 81.7% | 78 min | 1.76% | B |
| CLT to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 3,060 | 75.7% | 63 min | 2.84% | B |
| CLT to TPA · Tampa | 3,038 | 76.6% | 64 min | 1.61% | B |
| CLT to RDU · Raleigh | 3,029 | 77.4% | 68 min | 1.52% | B |
| CLT to BWI · Baltimore | 2,947 | 76.9% | 68 min | 1.73% | B |
| CLT to PHX · Phoenix | 2,881 | 80.0% | 67 min | 1.01% | B |
| CLT to DEN · Denver | 2,784 | 78.1% | 62 min | 1.26% | B |
| CLT to DCA · Washington | 2,682 | 67.5% | 69 min | 2.57% | C |
| CLT to CHS · Charleston | 2,508 | 75.6% | 72 min | 1.71% | B |
| CLT to ORF · Norfolk | 2,491 | 74.1% | 73 min | 1.57% | C |
| CLT to RIC · Richmond | 2,455 | 76.1% | 70 min | 1.87% | B |
| CLT to MSP · Minneapolis | 2,451 | 81.5% | 80 min | 1.39% | B |
| CLT to IAH · Houston | 2,315 | 79.2% | 79 min | 1.94% | B |
| CLT to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,276 | 78.8% | 59 min | 0.92% | B+ |
| CLT to MYR · Myrtle Beach | 2,220 | 76.6% | 72 min | 1.89% | B |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave CLT
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am14,047 flights89.6%
- 8am–11am30,138 flights85.9%
- 11am–2pm33,115 flights80.4%
- 2pm–5pm33,082 flights72.4%
- 5pm–8pm31,689 flights69.0%
- 8pm–5am38,932 flights68.9%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.6% of the time, against 68.9% for the overnight window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 38,932 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CLT departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from Charlotte (CLT), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.6% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 68.9%, a wide gap of 20.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.6%
- 8–11am85.9%
- 11am–2pm80.4%
- 2–5pm72.4%
- 5–8pm69.0%
- 8pm–5am68.9%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When CLT runs late
CLT's year swings by 20 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
July is the worst month at 63.8% on time, 20 points below September, the best at 84.0%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. October was the busiest month here, with 16,273 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.1%, a spread of 14 points.
CLT month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into CLT
8 European airports send scheduled passenger flights to CLT, 6,208 flights a year in both directions by the DOT's international count. The DOT keeps no delay record for international flights; the UK routes carry the CAA's departure punctuality, and every route sets its departure airport's EUROCONTROL figures beside CLT's own record above.
Delay causes
Why CLT gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 3.06 million delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 15%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 3.06 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 3,060,054 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 89.6% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.06% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.26%.
9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
181,003 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
What to do with this
Flying out of CLT
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 84.0% on time and July 63.8%, a swing of 20 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 176,801 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CLT delay questions
How often is Charlotte (CLT) delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.9% of the 181,003 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 Charlotte (CLT)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 85.6% on time across 5,482 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 68.3%, a gap of 17 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 Charlotte (CLT)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.6% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 68.9%, 21 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 July delays on Charlotte (CLT)?
July is the weakest month at 63.8% on time, compared with 84.0% in September. Across the year that is 20 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
- CLT to MCO — Orlando71.6%
- CLT to ORD — Chicago72.4%
- CLT to ATL — Atlanta81.3%
- CLT to LGA — New York71.5%
- CLT to BOS — Boston76.0%
- CLT to DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth77.7%
- American Airlines on-time record75.5%
- PSA Airlines on-time record75.2%
- Envoy Air on-time record83.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record85.6%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- US airports with the biggest gap between their best and worst month
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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.