Route reliability record
CHS→CLT
Charleston to Charlotte
- Flights
- 2,506
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 168 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 2,506 CHS to CLT flights, of which American Airlines flew 1,731 at 84.8% on time.
Best time to fly CHS to CLT: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.3% of the time and Wednesday flights 88.7%, against 82.7% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 5 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 54 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
82.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,457 completed flights
Avg delay
106 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.84%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
84.8% on time across 1,731 flights
These figures cover 2,506 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 11 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.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on CHS to CLT
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 84.8% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 74.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 599 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 176 | 92.4% | 53 min | 3.41% | A− |
| American Airlines | 1,731 | 84.8% | 109 min | 1.39% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 599 | 74.0% | 104 min | 2.67% | C |
American leads PSA by 11 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on CHS to CLT
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Charleston to Charlotte
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. CHS → CLTCharleston to Charlotte | American Airlines | 83.6% | 84.8% | 1.39% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 1731 08:00 |
| 2. CHS → CLTCharleston to Charlotte | PSA Airlines | 72.0% | 74.0% | 2.67% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 29 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am605 flights93.3%
- 8am–11am280 flights88.7%
- 11am–2pm433 flights85.0%
- 2pm–5pm538 flights77.4%
- 5pm–8pm475 flights76.7%
- 8pm–5am175 flights64.2%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.2% on time, against 93.3% 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 605 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CHS to CLT 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 CHS to CLT, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.3% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 64.2%, a wide gap of 29.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.3%
- 8–11am88.7%
- 11am–2pm85.0%
- 2–5pm77.4%
- 5–8pm76.7%
- 8pm–5am64.2%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route'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.
July is the worst month at 74.9% on time, 15 points below April, the best at 90.1%. 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. November was the busiest month here, with 243 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 78.4%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 55% of the 45,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 55%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
55% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 45,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 47 to one. The split is drawn from 44,822 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 93.3% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.84% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.12%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
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 close to two hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 168 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 75.6% on time across 2,508 flights, 7 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 7 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,506 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in CLT after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 90.1% on time and July 74.9%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 2,457 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CHS to CLT questions
How often is CHS to CLT delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.3% of the 2,506 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on CHS to CLT?
American Airlines leads at 84.8% on time across 1,731 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 74.0%, a gap of 11 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 CHS to CLT?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.3% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 64.2%, 29 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 CHS to CLT?
July is the weakest month at 74.9% on time, compared with 90.1% in April. 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
- CLT to CHS — the return legseparate record
- Charleston International (CHS) delay statistics
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- Envoy Air on CHS to CLT92.4%
- American Airlines on CHS to CLT84.8%
- PSA Airlines on CHS to CLT74.0%
- CHS to ATL, a related route88.9%
- MCO to CLT, a related route78.6%
- CHS to ORD, a related route76.7%
- Envoy Air on-time record92.4%
- American Airlines on-time record84.8%
- PSA Airlines on-time record74.0%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. CHS to CLT and CLT to CHS are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed CHS to CLT’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.