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DelayAtlas

Airport month record

CMHMAR

John Glenn Columbus International in March 2026

Departures
4,010
Month
March 2026
National, same month
75.7%
Carriers
10
B−GRADE

Historical statistics for March 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s March. For today’s conditions at CMH, see live FAA status.

CMH in March carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.2% of scheduled flights never operate, against 2.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 4,010 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 1,087 at 79.1% on time.

Key figures

On time

76.4%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,870 completed departures

Avg delay

86 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

3.24%

Nationally in March: 2.90%

Whole year

80.1%

CMH across all twelve months

These figures cover 4,010 departures from John Glenn Columbus International in March 2026. 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

March next to CMH's other months

Against CMH's own year, March ran 4 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 80.1%, which makes it number ten of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where March stands out: 3.24% of scheduled departures were called off, 1.6 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, February ran 82.9% on time and April 84.2%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.

CMH month by month
MonthFlightsOn timeAvg delayCancelledGrade
July 20253,93373.3%79 min3.41%C−
August 20253,75882.1%68 min1.41%B
September 20253,72685.2%67 min0.51%A+
October 20254,03181.1%67 min0.72%B+
November 20253,64179.9%77 min1.81%B
December 20253,56770.7%75 min1.68%C
January 20263,29681.6%78 min6.28%B−
February 20263,23182.9%75 min2.72%B
March 2026 (this page)4,01076.4%86 min3.24%B−
April 20263,71384.2%72 min0.51%B+
May 20263,86083.4%65 min1.22%B
June 20263,87681.0%78 min1.57%B

Departure window

The best time of day to leave CMH in March

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 points, against 4 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

  • 5am–8am1,115 flights87.3%
  • 8am–11am744 flights79.9%
  • 11am–2pm629 flights77.8%
  • 2pm–5pm593 flights67.4%
  • 5pm–8pm725 flights66.1%
  • 8pm–5am204 flights62.1%

Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 62.1% on time, against 87.3% 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 1,115 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.3% on time and Monday the weakest at 68.2%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

On-time rate by day of the week68.2Mon80.2Tue81.3Wed78.8Thu73.8Fri76.4Sat77.6Sun
Monday: 68.2 percent on time. Tuesday: 80.2 percent on time. Wednesday: 81.3 percent on time. Thursday: 78.8 percent on time. Friday: 73.8 percent on time. Saturday: 76.4 percent on time. Sunday: 77.6 percent on time

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at CMH in March

The two carriers here are closely matched: 4 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.

Carriers at CMH in March 2026
AirlineFlightsOn timeAvg delayCancelledGrade
Southwest Airlines1,22475.6%70 min1.47%B
Republic Airways1,08779.1%70 min3.86%B−
Envoy Airthin sample35374.4%94 min2.55%C
American Airlinesthin sample34781.8%122 min1.44%B
United Airlinesthin sample30174.5%124 min2.33%C
Delta Air Linesthin sample26485.1%106 min3.03%A−
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample13871.1%139 min7.25%C−
PSA Airlinesthin sample11267.0%67 min8.04%C−
Spirit Airlinesthin sample9365.8%90 min18.28%C−
Frontier Airlinesthin sample6550.8%113 min6.15%F−

Republic Airways cancels 3.9% 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 in March

Routes from CMH in March 2026
RouteFlightsOn timeAvg delayCancelledGrade
CMH to ORD · Chicago44269.9%106 min5.20%C−
CMH to LGA · New Yorkthin sample26769.6%71 min9.74%C−
CMH to ATL · Atlantathin sample24780.7%88 min3.24%B−
CMH to MCO · Orlandothin sample23871.2%104 min4.62%C−
CMH to DCA · Washingtonthin sample18265.3%69 min3.30%C−
CMH to CLT · Charlottethin sample17980.5%93 min2.79%B
CMH to BOS · Bostonthin sample17883.3%58 min1.69%B
CMH to EWR · Newarkthin sample15584.3%62 min1.29%B
CMH to JFK · New Yorkthin sample14880.4%71 min2.03%B
CMH to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample14782.5%144 min1.36%B
CMH to DEN · Denverthin sample14774.0%87 min0.68%C+
CMH to MIA · Miamithin sample13979.6%80 min1.44%B
CMH to PHX · Phoenixthin sample12884.8%85 min2.34%B
CMH to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample12463.1%73 min10.48%D−
CMH to IAD · Washingtonthin sample11681.7%158 min0.86%B+
CMH to DTW · Detroitthin sample10782.9%126 min1.87%B
CMH to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample10477.2%96 min1.92%B
CMH to TPA · Tampathin sample10276.5%57 min3.92%B−
CMH to BWI · Baltimorethin sample9185.6%60 min0.00%A+
CMH to MDW · Chicagothin sample8965.9%62 min4.49%C−
CMH to BNA · Nashvillethin sample8281.5%46 min1.22%B
CMH to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample8280.5%71 min0.00%B+
CMH to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample6883.3%167 min2.94%B
CMH to STL · St. Louisthin sample5874.1%100 min0.00%C+
CMH to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample5878.2%66 min5.17%B−

Delay causes

What held CMH up in March

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 79,000 reported delay minutes.

  • Late-arriving aircraft
    34%
  • National Airspace System
    32%
  • Carrier
    29%
  • Extreme weather
    5%
  • Security
    0%

34% 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 79,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 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 78,605 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations run at 3.24%, against 2.90% 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. 9.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 9.5% 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 CMH in March

For a March trip through CMH: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 87.3% on time, and with 9.6% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in September would.

Related

Where to go next

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.