Airport month record

CVGDEC

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International in December 2025

Departures: 2,710
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 CVG, see live FAA status.

CVG in December draws a C. About one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, and the typical late arrival is an hour and a half behind schedule. Build slack into anything you connect to. That rests on 2,710 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 638 at 73.4% on time.

The national on-time rate over the same period is 73.2%, so cvg in december runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 55 extra late arrivals.

On time

67.7%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,656 completed departures

Avg delay

84 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.70%

Nationally in December: 1.55%

Whole year

78.8%

CVG across all twelve months

These figures cover 2,710 departures from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky 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 CVG's other months

Against CVG's own year, December ran 11 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 78.8%, which makes it the worst of the twelve months in the data. Either side of it, November ran 82.7% on time and January 80.3%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.

CVG month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	3,077	71.5%	94 min	2.73%	C
August 2025	2,894	80.7%	81 min	1.11%	B
September 2025	2,613	85.4%	69 min	0.61%	A+
October 2025	2,941	81.2%	61 min	0.48%	B+
November 2025	2,713	82.7%	86 min	2.69%	B
December 2025 (this page)	2,710	67.7%	84 min	1.70%	C
January 2026	2,380	80.3%	81 min	6.26%	B−
February 2026	2,270	77.8%	70 min	1.45%	B
March 2026	3,105	75.4%	90 min	2.80%	B
April 2026	2,835	83.6%	85 min	1.02%	B
May 2026	3,064	82.4%	66 min	1.01%	B
June 2026	3,129	77.7%	83 min	1.57%	B

Departure window

The best time of day to leave CVG in December

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 16 points, against 5 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am773 flights72.7%
8am–11am452 flights73.9%
11am–2pm370 flights68.4%
2pm–5pm554 flights63.6%
5pm–8pm440 flights57.6%
8pm–5am121 flights66.1%

Scale runs 50% to 80%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 57.6% on time, against 73.9% for the 8am–11am 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 773 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 55.6%. 28 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at CVG in December

The two carriers here are closely matched: 5 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 CVG in December 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Lines	638	73.4%	70 min	2.51%	C
Republic Airways	380	68.5%	82 min	2.11%	C
PSA Airlinesthin sample	276	61.7%	109 min	2.17%	D
Allegiant Airthin sample	276	68.0%	69 min	0.36%	C+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	274	59.4%	102 min	2.55%	D
American Airlinesthin sample	219	71.1%	81 min	0.00%	C+
Envoy Airthin sample	216	68.9%	78 min	1.85%	C
Southwest Airlinesthin sample	174	71.7%	58 min	0.57%	C+
United Airlinesthin sample	166	69.9%	75 min	0.00%	C+
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	62	49.2%	174 min	4.84%	F−

No carrier stands out. Delta tops the table at 73.4%, 5 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of CVG in December

Routes from CVG in December 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
CVG to ORD · Chicagothin sample	334	56.0%	111 min	3.29%	D−
CVG to ATL · Atlantathin sample	239	79.4%	73 min	2.51%	B
CVG to BOS · Bostonthin sample	164	75.0%	63 min	0.00%	B+
CVG to MCO · Orlandothin sample	147	65.5%	82 min	1.36%	C
CVG to CLT · Charlottethin sample	143	67.4%	128 min	0.70%	C+
CVG to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	137	71.3%	82 min	0.73%	C+
CVG to DEN · Denverthin sample	122	69.4%	85 min	0.00%	C+
CVG to MIA · Miamithin sample	107	68.2%	70 min	0.00%	C+
CVG to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	99	67.7%	97 min	3.03%	C−
CVG to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	86	53.6%	94 min	2.33%	F
CVG to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	79	62.3%	99 min	2.53%	D
CVG to IAD · Washingtonthin sample	70	68.6%	59 min	0.00%	C+
CVG to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	67	73.1%	100 min	0.00%	C+
CVG to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample	64	77.4%	65 min	1.56%	B
CVG to TPA · Tampathin sample	63	66.7%	62 min	0.00%	C+
CVG to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	62	80.3%	65 min	1.61%	B
CVG to JFK · New Yorkthin sample	62	70.7%	74 min	6.45%	C−
CVG to SEA · Seattlethin sample	60	39.0%	43 min	1.67%	F
CVG to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	54	63.5%	72 min	3.70%	D−
CVG to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	53	66.7%	70 min	1.89%	C
CVG to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	53	56.9%	122 min	3.77%	D−
CVG to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	50	66.7%	107 min	8.00%	C−
CVG to IAH · Houstonthin sample	44	79.5%	45 min	0.00%	B+
CVG to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	37	80.6%	101 min	2.70%	B
CVG to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	33	69.7%	43 min	0.00%	C+

Delay causes

What held CVG 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 72,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
37%
National Airspace System
27%
Carrier
27%
Extreme weather
8%
Security
0%

37% 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 72,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 4 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 72,272 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.70% against a national 1.55%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.30%.

For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 14.8% 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 CVG in December

For a December trip through CVG: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 8am–11am departures held up best at 73.9% on time, and with 14.8% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in September would.

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG), the whole year
CVG in July71.5%
CVG in August80.7%
CVG in September85.4%
CVG in October81.2%
CVG in November82.7%
CVG in January80.3%
CVG in February77.8%
CVG in March75.4%
CVG in April83.6%
CVG in May82.4%
CVG in June77.7%

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