Columbus, OH · departure reliability
CMH
John Glenn Columbus International
- Departures
- 44,809
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 11
- US rank
- #42 by volume
Columbus
John Glenn Columbus International lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 44,809 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,730 at 87.1% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the eleven carriers covered here at 87.1% on time across 3,730 flights.
Key figures
On time
80.4%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.13%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
87.1% on time here
These figures cover 45,000 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of CMH
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.1% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 66.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 567 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 13,053 | 82.3% | 67 min | 3.45% | B− |
| Southwest Airlines | 12,338 | 80.0% | 59 min | 1.01% | B |
| American Airlines | 4,222 | 82.4% | 113 min | 2.13% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 3,730 | 87.1% | 86 min | 1.21% | A |
| United Airlines | 3,396 | 74.1% | 87 min | 1.33% | C |
| Envoy Air | 3,078 | 80.9% | 90 min | 1.10% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 1,643 | 76.0% | 87 min | 4.50% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,458 | 76.5% | 120 min | 3.02% | B− |
| Spirit Airlines | 859 | 72.8% | 82 min | 3.84% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 567 | 66.4% | 84 min | 1.94% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 465 | 70.9% | 50 min | 1.08% | C |
PSA Airlines cancels 4.5% 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 CMH
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from CMH, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 80.4%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CMH to ORD · Chicago | 4,988 | 75.4% | 95 min | 2.73% | B |
| CMH to ATL · Atlanta | 3,129 | 84.8% | 82 min | 1.44% | B |
| CMH to LGA · New York | 3,035 | 79.2% | 73 min | 4.81% | B− |
| CMH to MCO · Orlando | 2,121 | 77.5% | 75 min | 1.46% | B |
| CMH to EWR · Newark | 2,087 | 82.9% | 67 min | 4.36% | B− |
| CMH to DCA · Washington | 2,051 | 69.2% | 72 min | 3.80% | C− |
| CMH to CLT · Charlotte | 2,042 | 84.2% | 87 min | 1.81% | B |
| CMH to BOS · Boston | 2,005 | 82.5% | 64 min | 2.29% | B |
| CMH to DEN · Denver | 1,776 | 79.4% | 71 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| CMH to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,727 | 81.0% | 107 min | 2.03% | B |
| CMH to JFK · New York | 1,570 | 83.8% | 73 min | 4.71% | B− |
| CMH to DTW · Detroit | 1,508 | 85.6% | 89 min | 0.80% | A+ |
| CMH to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,437 | 81.6% | 89 min | 3.48% | B− |
| CMH to MDW · Chicago | 1,237 | 79.7% | 56 min | 1.62% | B |
| CMH to MIA · Miami | 1,181 | 84.5% | 67 min | 0.34% | B+ |
| CMH to PHX · Phoenix | 1,141 | 82.7% | 100 min | 1.31% | B |
| CMH to BNA · Nashville | 1,046 | 82.6% | 50 min | 0.57% | B+ |
| CMH to BWI · Baltimore | 1,044 | 87.2% | 71 min | 1.53% | A |
| CMH to IAD · Washington | 935 | 84.9% | 80 min | 0.86% | B+ |
| CMH to TPA · Tampa | 906 | 83.8% | 52 min | 1.21% | B |
| CMH to LAS · Las Vegas | 894 | 79.1% | 59 min | 0.34% | B+ |
| CMH to MSP · Minneapolis | 871 | 85.2% | 97 min | 0.80% | A+ |
| CMH to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 718 | 77.6% | 67 min | 3.20% | B− |
| CMH to STL · St. Louis | 674 | 83.3% | 65 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| CMH to RSW · Fort Myers | 654 | 79.2% | 66 min | 1.68% | B |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave CMH
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 22 points, against 21 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am12,333 flights89.9%
- 8am–11am7,740 flights86.4%
- 11am–2pm7,650 flights80.8%
- 2pm–5pm6,882 flights72.5%
- 5pm–8pm8,146 flights69.7%
- 8pm–5am2,058 flights68.1%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.9% of the time, against 68.1% for the overnight window. That is 22 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 12,333 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CMH 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 Columbus (CMH), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.9% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 68.1%, a wide gap of 21.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.9%
- 8–11am86.4%
- 11am–2pm80.8%
- 2–5pm72.5%
- 5–8pm69.7%
- 8pm–5am68.1%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When CMH runs late
CMH's year swings by 15 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.
December is the weak month at 70.7% on time, against 85.2% in September. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 4,031 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.4% on time and Monday the weakest at 76.6%, a spread of 8 points.
CMH month by month
Delay causes
Why CMH gets delayed
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 655,000 reported delay minutes.
- 36%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 30%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 655,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 655,118 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 89.9% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.13% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.26%.
7.3% 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.
44,809 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 CMH
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 85.2% on time and December 70.7%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 43,738 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CMH delay questions
How often is Columbus (CMH) delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.6% of the 44,809 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 Columbus (CMH)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 87.1% on time across 3,730 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 66.4%, a gap of 21 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 Columbus (CMH)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.9% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 68.1%, 22 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 Columbus (CMH)?
December is the weakest month at 70.7% on time, compared with 85.2% in September. Across the year that is 15 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
- CMH to ORD — Chicago75.4%
- CMH to ATL — Atlanta84.8%
- CMH to LGA — New York79.2%
- CMH to MCO — Orlando77.5%
- CMH to EWR — Newark82.9%
- CMH to DCA — Washington69.2%
- Republic Airways on-time record82.3%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record80.0%
- American Airlines on-time record82.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record87.1%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Embed CMH’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.