Carrier route record
AACLT→PNS
American Airlines · Charlotte to Pensacola
- Flights
- 577
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 31%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on CLT to PNS 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 577 flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on CLT to PNS from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
79.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 569 completed flights
Avg delay
87 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.21%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
75.0%
Every carrier on CLT to PNS, 1,846 flights
These figures cover 577 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
American against every carrier on CLT to PNS
American flew 577 of the 1,846 flights on CLT to PNS, about 31% of it. Its 79.6% on time is 5 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 75.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 88.6% to PSA at 71.9%. One 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 70 | 88.6% | 66 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 577 | 79.6% | 87 min | 1.21% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 1,199 | 71.9% | 75 min | 2.42% | C |
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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 36 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am330 flights82.0%
- 11am–2pm33 flights78.8%
- 2pm–5pm80 flights90.0%
- 5pm–8pm46 flights91.3%
- 8pm–5am88 flights55.7%
Scale runs 45% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 55.7% on time, against 91.3% for the 5pm–8pm 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 330 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on CLT to PNS through the year
April is the best month on the calendar at 87.8% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. May was the busiest month here, with 77 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 90.0% on time and Friday the weakest at 71.2%, a spread of 19 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on CLT to PNS runs when it is late
American on CLT to PNS often beats the schedule: 198 of 569 completed flights, 35%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 116 late arrivals split 35 under half an hour, 44 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 37 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early198 flights34.8%
- Within 15 min255 flights44.8%
- 15–29 min late35 flights6.2%
- 30–59 min late44 flights7.7%
- 1–2 hours late16 flights2.8%
- 2+ hours late21 flights3.7%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 569 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
23 of 126 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 18% of them. 13 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on CLT to PNS
The latest arrival of the period was on 4 August 2026, 9 hours 35 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). Three of the five worst days fell in July 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 4 August 2026 | 9 hours 35 minutes | Carrier |
| 17 July 2026 | 7 hours 46 minutes | Carrier |
| 31 August 2026 | 7 hours 43 minutes | Carrier |
| 27 July 2026 | 7 hours 42 minutes | Carrier |
| 13 July 2026 | 7 hours 1 minute | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 57% of the 10,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 57%Carrier
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 5%National Airspace System
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
37% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 10,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 33 to one. The split is drawn from 10,029 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 57%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 5,700 of the 10,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.21% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.17%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
6.5% 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.
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 5pm–8pm window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 85.4% on time across 577 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 577 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.
What to do with this
Booking American on CLT to PNS
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 577 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 79.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 569 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- CLT to PNS, every carrier
- American on PNS to CLT, the return leg
- PSA Airlines on CLT to PNS71.9%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) 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.