Route reliability record
CLE→MIA
Cleveland to Miami
- Flights
- 892
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,080 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B, 2 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 an hour and a half on average. That rests on 892 CLE to MIA flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
Best time to fly CLE to MIA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.5% of the time and Wednesday flights 88.5%, against 79.7% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
79.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 878 completed flights
Avg delay
95 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.23%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
86.6% on time across 456 flights
These figures cover 892 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 10 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on CLE to MIA
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 456 | 86.6% | 132 min | 1.10% | A |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 165 | 73.6% | 61 min | 1.21% | C |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 267 | 72.5% | 85 min | 1.50% | C |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 4 | 25.0% | 39 min | 0.00% | F+ |
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Cleveland to Miami
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 2 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. CLE → FLLCleveland to Fort Lauderdale | United Airlines | 89.2% | 89.9% | 0.73% | 5am–8am, Wed | UA 715 07:00 |
| 2. CLE → MIACleveland to Miami | American Airlines | 85.6% | 86.6% | 1.10% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 3. CLE → FLLCleveland to Fort Lauderdale | Frontier Airlines | 75.0% | 77.1% | 2.72% | 5am–8am, 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 27 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am382 flights90.5%
- 8am–11am21 flights—
- 11am–2pm57 flights80.4%
- 2pm–5pm126 flights64.0%
- 5pm–8pm298 flights72.9%
- 8pm–5am8 flights—
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.5% of the time, against 64.0% for the afternoon window. That is 27 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 382 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CLE to MIA 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 CLE to MIA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.5% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 64.0%, a wide gap of 26.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.5%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm80.4%
- 2–5pm64.0%
- 5–8pm72.9%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 22 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.
January is the weak month at 69.5% on time, against 91.1% 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. March was the busiest month here, with 94 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.9%, a spread of 17 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 17,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 38%Carrier
- 15%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 17,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 46 to one. The split is drawn from 16,818 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 38%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 6,433 of the 17,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.23% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.34%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.9% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,080 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 71.8% on time across 891 flights, 8 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 8 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 892 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in MIA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 892 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 79.7% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 878 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CLE to MIA questions
How often is CLE to MIA 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 20.3% of the 892 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is CLE to MIA compared with the rest of the country?
79.7% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on CLE to MIA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.5% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 64.0%, 27 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 January delays on CLE to MIA?
January is the weakest month at 69.5% on time, compared with 91.1% in September. Across the year that is 22 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
- MIA to CLE — the return legseparate record
- Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE) delay statistics
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- American Airlines on CLE to MIA86.6%
- Envoy Air on CLE to MIA73.6%
- Frontier Airlines on CLE to MIA72.5%
- CLE to ORD, a related route74.5%
- ATL to MIA, a related route71.2%
- CLE to ATL, a related route84.6%
- American Airlines on-time record86.6%
- Envoy Air on-time record73.6%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record72.5%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. CLE to MIA and MIA to CLE are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.