Charlotte, NC · departure reliability
CLT
Charlotte Douglas International
- Departures
- 182,405
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Carriers
- 10
- US rank
- #7 by volume
Charlotte
Charlotte Douglas International lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 182,405 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 5,503 at 86.7% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the ten carriers covered here at 86.7% on time across 5,503 flights.
Key figures
On time
76.7%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.01%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Delta
86.7% on time here
These figures cover 182,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of CLT
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.7% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 69.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 3,069 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 114,400 | 75.5% | 69 min | 1.77% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 39,317 | 77.6% | 69 min | 2.39% | B |
| Envoy Air | 5,833 | 83.8% | 57 min | 1.75% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 5,503 | 86.7% | 82 min | 1.33% | A |
| Republic Airways | 3,884 | 82.4% | 82 min | 3.66% | B− |
| Southwest Airlines | 3,255 | 76.8% | 56 min | 1.69% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 3,069 | 69.8% | 93 min | 3.39% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 2,793 | 75.7% | 72 min | 4.30% | B− |
| United Airlines | 2,576 | 78.9% | 95 min | 2.02% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,775 | 75.3% | 149 min | 2.87% | B |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.3% 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 76.7%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CLT to MCO · Orlando | 4,736 | 70.6% | 74 min | 2.03% | C |
| CLT to ATL · Atlanta | 4,409 | 83.3% | 73 min | 1.81% | B |
| CLT to LGA · New York | 4,332 | 72.1% | 79 min | 3.90% | C− |
| CLT to ORD · Chicago | 4,300 | 72.2% | 78 min | 2.91% | C |
| CLT to BOS · Boston | 4,016 | 76.2% | 66 min | 2.49% | B |
| CLT to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,881 | 78.4% | 71 min | 2.55% | B |
| CLT to EWR · Newark | 3,755 | 74.5% | 87 min | 3.94% | C− |
| CLT to MIA · Miami | 3,720 | 75.9% | 82 min | 1.91% | B |
| CLT to DTW · Detroit | 3,535 | 82.2% | 75 min | 1.64% | B |
| CLT to BNA · Nashville | 3,525 | 76.1% | 65 min | 1.62% | B |
| CLT to PHL · Philadelphia | 3,510 | 77.6% | 78 min | 2.56% | B |
| CLT to TPA · Tampa | 3,205 | 75.1% | 63 min | 1.65% | B |
| CLT to RDU · Raleigh | 3,070 | 77.4% | 66 min | 1.66% | B |
| CLT to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 3,014 | 75.5% | 62 min | 2.69% | B |
| CLT to BWI · Baltimore | 2,996 | 76.5% | 71 min | 1.74% | B |
| CLT to PHX · Phoenix | 2,885 | 80.2% | 59 min | 1.11% | B |
| CLT to DEN · Denver | 2,816 | 77.0% | 63 min | 1.28% | B |
| CLT to DCA · Washington | 2,684 | 67.7% | 69 min | 2.46% | C |
| CLT to CHS · Charleston | 2,536 | 76.3% | 73 min | 1.62% | B |
| CLT to RIC · Richmond | 2,497 | 76.1% | 64 min | 2.08% | B |
| CLT to ORF · Norfolk | 2,468 | 75.3% | 71 min | 1.62% | B |
| CLT to MSP · Minneapolis | 2,447 | 82.7% | 75 min | 1.63% | B |
| CLT to IAH · Houston | 2,348 | 77.6% | 74 min | 1.96% | B |
| CLT to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,308 | 78.0% | 57 min | 0.95% | B+ |
| CLT to MYR · Myrtle Beach | 2,276 | 77.9% | 69 min | 1.80% | 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 20 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am14,140 flights89.6%
- 8am–11am29,986 flights86.3%
- 11am–2pm33,291 flights81.3%
- 2pm–5pm33,552 flights73.0%
- 5pm–8pm31,895 flights69.3%
- 8pm–5am39,541 flights69.8%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.6% of the time, against 69.3% for the evening window. That is 20 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 39,541 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When CLT runs late
CLT's year swings by 18 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 65.7% on time, 18 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. July was the busiest month here, with 16,447 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.5%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why CLT gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 2.94 million delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 16%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. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 2.94 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 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 2,937,985 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 2.01% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.25%.
8.7% 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.
182,405 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 65.7%, a swing of 18 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 178,287 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CLT delay questions
How often is Charlotte (CLT) delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.3% of the 182,405 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 Charlotte (CLT)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 86.7% on time across 5,503 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 69.8%, 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 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 69.3%, 20 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 65.7% on time, compared with 84.0% in September. Across the year that is 18 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 — Orlando70.6%
- CLT to ATL — Atlanta83.3%
- CLT to LGA — New York72.1%
- CLT to ORD — Chicago72.2%
- CLT to BOS — Boston76.2%
- CLT to DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth78.4%
- American Airlines on-time record75.5%
- PSA Airlines on-time record77.6%
- Envoy Air on-time record83.8%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record86.7%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.