Route reliability record
CLT→FLL
Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale
- Flights
- 3,060
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 632 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 3,060 CLT to FLL flights, of which American Airlines flew 2,069 at 77.1% on time.
Best time to fly CLT to FLL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.1% of the time and Wednesday flights 85.4%, against 75.7% 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
75.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,968 completed flights
Avg delay
63 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.84%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
77.1% on time across 2,069 flights
These figures cover 3,060 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on CLT to FLL
The two carriers here are closely matched: 2 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.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 160 | 79.7% | 79 min | 3.75% | B− |
| American Airlines | 2,069 | 77.1% | 61 min | 1.79% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 607 | 74.7% | 63 min | 5.60% | C− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 224 | 62.4% | 69 min | 4.46% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 5.6% 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.
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 Charlotte to Fort Lauderdale
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 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. CLT → PBICharlotte to West Palm Beach | American Airlines | 77.2% | 78.4% | 1.54% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 2. CLT → MIACharlotte to Miami | American Airlines | 77.0% | 78.1% | 1.38% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 3. CLT → FLLCharlotte to Fort Lauderdale | American Airlines | 75.7% | 77.1% | 1.79% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 4. CLT → FLLCharlotte to Fort Lauderdale | Spirit Airlines | 70.5% | 74.7% | 5.60% | 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 24 points, against 2 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am480 flights90.1%
- 8am–11am579 flights84.8%
- 11am–2pm548 flights76.0%
- 2pm–5pm441 flights69.2%
- 5pm–8pm402 flights67.7%
- 8pm–5am610 flights66.0%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.1% of the time, against 66.0% for the overnight window. That is 24 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 610 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CLT to FLL 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 CLT to FLL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.1% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 66.0%, a wide gap of 24.1 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.1%
- 8–11am84.8%
- 11am–2pm76.0%
- 2–5pm69.2%
- 5–8pm67.7%
- 8pm–5am66.0%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 25 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 61.2% on time, 25 points below September, the best at 86.3%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 322 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 85.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 65.5%, a spread of 20 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 45,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
51% 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 15 to one. The split is drawn from 45,122 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 90.1% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.84%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 40 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 632 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 runs 77.2% on time across 3,060 flights, within 2 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 3,060 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 FLL after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 2.84% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 2,968 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CLT to FLL questions
How often is CLT to FLL delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.3% of the 3,060 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on CLT to FLL?
American Airlines leads at 77.1% on time across 2,069 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 74.7%, a gap of 2 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 CLT to FLL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.1% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 66.0%, 24 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 CLT to FLL?
July is the weakest month at 61.2% on time, compared with 86.3% in September. Across the year that is 25 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
- FLL to CLT — the return legseparate record
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- JetBlue Airways on CLT to FLL79.7%
- American Airlines on CLT to FLL77.1%
- Spirit Airlines on CLT to FLL74.7%
- Frontier Airlines on CLT to FLL62.4%
- CLT to MCO, a related route71.6%
- ATL to FLL, a related route70.7%
- CLT to ORD, a related route72.4%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record79.7%
- American Airlines on-time record77.1%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record74.7%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. CLT to FLL and FLL to CLT 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.