Carrier route record
AACLT→PHL
American Airlines · Charlotte to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 2,873
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 81%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on CLT to PHL 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 a little over an hour on average. That rests on 2,873 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on CLT to PHL from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
79.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,799 completed flights
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.47%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
77.2%
Every carrier on CLT to PHL, 3,537 flights
These figures cover 2,873 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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
American against every carrier on CLT to PHL
American flew 2,873 of the 3,537 flights on CLT to PHL, most of the route. Its 79.1% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 77.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from PSA at 100.0% to Frontier at 65.9%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 9 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 81 | 82.3% | 86 min | 2.47% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 2,873 | 79.1% | 77 min | 2.47% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 574 | 65.9% | 97 min | 5.92% | C− |
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.
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 24 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am229 flights94.3%
- 8am–11am621 flights86.7%
- 11am–2pm571 flights82.4%
- 2pm–5pm582 flights72.1%
- 5pm–8pm439 flights73.5%
- 8pm–5am431 flights70.7%
Scale runs 60% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 94.3% of the time, against 70.7% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 621 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on CLT to PHL through the year
July is the worst month at 71.7% on time, 13 points below September, the best at 84.5%. 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. January was the busiest month here, with 248 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.2%, a spread of 17 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on CLT to PHL runs when it is late
American on CLT to PHL often beats the schedule: 868 of 2,799 completed flights, 31%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 584 late arrivals split 186 under half an hour, 178 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 220 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early868 flights31.0%
- Within 15 min1,347 flights48.1%
- 15–29 min late186 flights6.6%
- 30–59 min late178 flights6.4%
- 1–2 hours late123 flights4.4%
- 2+ hours late97 flights3.5%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 2,799 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
186 of 699 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 27% of them. 71 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on CLT to PHL
The latest arrival of the period was on 25 January 2026, 16 hours 26 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as extreme weather. On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as a late-arriving aircraft.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 25 January 2026 | 16 hours 26 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 30 August 2026 | 15 hours 49 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 18 June 2026 | 11 hours 50 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 2 May 2026 | 10 hours 53 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 14 July 2026 | 10 hours 40 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 52% of the 45,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 11%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
52% 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 5 to one. The split is drawn from 44,723 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 94.3% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.47% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.10%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
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 82.2% on time across 2,876 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 2,873 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.
What to do with this
Booking American on CLT to PHL
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 84.5% on time and July 71.7%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 2,799 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- CLT to PHL, every carrier
- American on PHL to CLT, the return leg
- Frontier Airlines on CLT to PHL65.9%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.