Route reliability record
CLT→RDU
Charlotte to Raleigh
- Flights
- 3,029
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 130 mi
- Carriers
- 3
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 3,029 CLT to RDU flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
Best time to fly CLT to RDU: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.2% of the time and Wednesday flights 87.5%, against 77.4% 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
77.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,979 completed flights
Avg delay
68 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.52%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
77.3% on time across 3,010 flights
These figures cover 3,029 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.2% 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 RDU
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 | 14 | 85.7% | 26 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 3,010 | 77.3% | 69 min | 1.46% | B |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 5 | 66.7% | 26 min | 40.00% | C− |
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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 22 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am217 flights91.2%
- 8am–11am452 flights86.3%
- 11am–2pm618 flights83.1%
- 2pm–5pm660 flights73.2%
- 5pm–8pm433 flights68.9%
- 8pm–5am649 flights70.8%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.2% of the time, against 68.9% for the evening window. That is 22 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 660 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CLT to RDU 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 RDU, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.2% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 68.9%, a wide gap of 22.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.2%
- 8–11am86.3%
- 11am–2pm83.1%
- 2–5pm73.2%
- 5–8pm68.9%
- 8pm–5am70.8%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 23 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 63.3% on time, 23 points below November, 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 273 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 87.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.4%, a spread of 17 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 55% of the 46,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 55%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%Carrier
- 7%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
55% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 46,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 15 to one. The split is drawn from 46,041 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 34%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 16,000 of the 46,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.52% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.13%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
8.2% 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 130 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 81.9% on time across 3,030 flights, 5 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 5 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 3,029 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 RDU 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. November runs 86.3% on time and July 63.3%, a swing of 23 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 2,979 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CLT to RDU questions
How often is CLT to RDU 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 22.6% of the 3,029 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is CLT to RDU compared with the rest of the country?
77.4% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of half a point in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on CLT to RDU?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.9%, 22 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 RDU?
July is the weakest month at 63.3% on time, compared with 86.3% in November. Across the year that is 23 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
- RDU to CLT — the return legseparate record
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) delay statistics
- CLT to MCO, a related route71.6%
- ATL to RDU, a related route80.0%
- CLT to ORD, a related route72.4%
- PSA Airlines on-time record85.7%
- American Airlines on-time record77.3%
- Envoy Air on-time record66.7%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. CLT to RDU and RDU 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.