Route reliability record
CLT→PNS
Charlotte to Pensacola
- Flights
- 1,846
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 488 mi
- Carriers
- 3
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 a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 1,846 CLT to PNS flights, of which American Airlines flew 577 at 79.6% on time.
Best time to fly CLT to PNS: a 11am–2pm departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 84.5% of the time and Wednesday flights 81.7%, against 75.0% 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
75.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,804 completed flights
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.95%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
79.6% on time across 577 flights
These figures cover 1,846 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.1% 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 PNS
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 79.6% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 71.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,199 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 70 | 88.6% | 66 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 577 | 79.6% | 87 min | 1.21% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 1,199 | 71.9% | 75 min | 2.42% | C |
American leads PSA by 8 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
Flight by flight
Flights on CLT to PNS
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.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Charlotte to Pensacola
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 → PNSCharlotte to Pensacola | American Airlines | 78.6% | 79.6% | 1.21% | 5pm–8pm, Wed | — |
| 2. CLT → VPSCharlotte to Valparaiso | American Airlines | 73.6% | 74.4% | 1.09% | 11am–2pm, Wed | AA 2909 15:18 |
| 3. CLT → PNSCharlotte to Pensacola | PSA Airlines | 70.2% | 71.9% | 2.42% | 11am–2pm, Wed | OH 5617 20:15 |
| 4. CLT → VPSCharlotte to Valparaiso | PSA Airlines | 69.3% | 72.9% | 5.00% | 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 21 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am360 flights81.8%
- 11am–2pm347 flights84.5%
- 2pm–5pm370 flights73.9%
- 5pm–8pm501 flights70.2%
- 8pm–5am268 flights64.0%
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.0% on time, against 84.5% for the 11am–2pm 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 501 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CLT to PNS 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 PNS, the best departure window is 11am–2pm at 84.5% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 64.0%, a wide gap of 20.5 points. All US flights leaving 11am–2pm ran 78.3%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am81.8%
- 11am–2pm84.5%
- 2–5pm73.9%
- 5–8pm70.2%
- 8pm–5am64.0%
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 30 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.
August is the worst month at 58.6% on time, 30 points below October, the best at 88.3%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 179 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.7% on time and Thursday the weakest at 70.8%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 35,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 35,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 34,961 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 36%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 13,000 of the 35,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.95% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.33%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
10.1% 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.
At 488 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 11am–2pm window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 83.5% on time across 1,847 flights, 9 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 9 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,846 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 PNS 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. October runs 88.3% on time and August 58.6%, a swing of 30 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 1,804 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CLT to PNS questions
How often is CLT to PNS 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 25.0% of the 1,846 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 PNS?
American Airlines leads at 79.6% on time across 577 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 71.9%, a gap of 8 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 PNS?
The 11am–2pm departure window is the strongest at 84.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 64.0%, 21 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 August delays on CLT to PNS?
August is the weakest month at 58.6% on time, compared with 88.3% in October. Across the year that is 30 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
- PNS to CLT — the return legseparate record
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- American Airlines on CLT to PNS79.6%
- PSA Airlines on CLT to PNS71.9%
- CLT to MCO, a related route71.6%
- ATL to PNS, a related route82.1%
- CLT to ORD, a related route72.4%
- Envoy Air on-time record88.6%
- American Airlines on-time record79.6%
- PSA Airlines on-time record71.9%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
Direction matters. CLT to PNS and PNS 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.