Route reliability record
CLT→PHL
Charlotte to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 3,537
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 449 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B−, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 3,537 CLT to PHL flights, of which American Airlines flew 2,873 at 79.1% on time.
Best time to fly CLT to PHL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.7% of the time and Tuesday flights 84.6%, against 77.2% 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
77.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,427 completed flights
Avg delay
82 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.03%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
79.1% on time across 2,873 flights
These figures cover 3,537 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.3% 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 PHL
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 79.1% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 65.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 574 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 9 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 81 | 82.3% | 86 min | 2.47% | B |
| American Airlines | 2,873 | 79.1% | 77 min | 2.47% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 574 | 65.9% | 97 min | 5.92% | C− |
Frontier Airlines cancels 5.9% 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.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Charlotte to Philadelphia
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. 1 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. CLT → PHLCharlotte to Philadelphia | American Airlines | 77.1% | 79.1% | 2.47% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 2. CLT → ABECharlotte to Allentown | PSA Airlines | 73.8% | 76.6% | 3.60% | 11am–2pm, Thu | — |
| 3. CLT → PHLCharlotte to Philadelphia | Frontier Airlines | 62.0% | 65.9% | 5.92% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
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 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am254 flights93.7%
- 8am–11am696 flights86.0%
- 11am–2pm743 flights81.3%
- 2pm–5pm694 flights69.4%
- 5pm–8pm495 flights74.0%
- 8pm–5am655 flights66.7%
Scale runs 60% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 93.7% of the time, against 66.7% for the overnight 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 743 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CLT to PHL 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 PHL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.7% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 66.7%, a wide gap of 27.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.7%
- 8–11am86.0%
- 11am–2pm81.3%
- 2–5pm69.4%
- 5–8pm74.0%
- 8pm–5am66.7%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 14 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 69.1% on time, 14 points below May, the best at 83.4%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 306 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.1%, a spread of 18 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 64,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 9%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 64,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 63,748 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 93.7% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.03%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
9.3% 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.
At 449 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 80.2% on time across 3,535 flights, 3 points above 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 3 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 3,537 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 PHL after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.03% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over 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. 3,427 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CLT to PHL questions
How often is CLT to PHL delayed?
Roughly 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 22.8% of the 3,537 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on CLT to PHL?
American Airlines leads at 79.1% on time across 2,873 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 65.9%, a gap of 13 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 PHL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.7% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 66.7%, 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 July delays on CLT to PHL?
July is the weakest month at 69.1% on time, compared with 83.4% in May. Across the year that is 14 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
- PHL to CLT — the return legseparate record
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- American Airlines on CLT to PHL79.1%
- Frontier Airlines on CLT to PHL65.9%
- CLT to MCO, a related route71.6%
- ATL to PHL, a related route74.6%
- CLT to ORD, a related route72.4%
- PSA Airlines on-time record100.0%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record82.3%
- American Airlines on-time record79.1%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. CLT to PHL and PHL 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.