Route reliability record

CLT→RIC

Charlotte to Richmond

Flights: 2,497
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Distance: 257 mi
Carriers: 4

This route lands a B, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 2,497 flights, of which PSA Airlines flew 431 at 81.4% on time.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, 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.

On time

76.1%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,443 completed flights

Avg delay

64 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

2.08%

National rate is 1.81%

Best carrier

PSA

81.4% on time across 431 flights

These figures cover 2,497 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.

Carrier by carrier

Which airline is most reliable on CLT to RIC

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. PSA Airlines arrives on time 81.4% of the time; American Airlines manages 74.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,995 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier on CLT to RIC
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Envoy Airthin sample	40	85.7%	31 min	12.50%	A−
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	31	82.8%	110 min	6.45%	B−
PSA Airlines	431	81.4%	63 min	1.16%	B
American Airlines	1,995	74.7%	64 min	2.01%	C

PSA leads American by 7 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

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 23 points, against 7 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am224 flights89.7%
8am–11am246 flights88.5%
11am–2pm528 flights83.4%
2pm–5pm492 flights72.6%
5pm–8pm390 flights66.8%
8pm–5am617 flights68.6%

Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.7% of the time, against 66.8% for the evening window. That is 23 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 617 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

When delays peak on this route

This route's year swings by 24 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.

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.October best, July worst

July is the worst month at 59.1% on time, 24 points below October, the best at 83.5%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 235 flights.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.0%. 11 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why this route gets delayed

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 37,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Late-arriving aircraft
51%
Carrier
29%
National Airspace System
10%
Extreme weather
9%
Security
1%

51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 37,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 37,157 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 89.7% on time here.

Cancellations sit at 2.08% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.08%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here actually costs

8.2% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the about an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.

At 257 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 83.4% on time across 2,498 flights, 7 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 7 points of difference.

The sample behind these figures is 2,497 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 this route

Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. October runs 83.5% on time and July 59.1%, a swing of 24 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 2,443 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

CLT to RIC questions

How often is CLT to RIC delayed?

About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.9% of the 2,497 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.

Which airline is most reliable on CLT to RIC?

PSA Airlines leads at 81.4% on time across 431 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 74.7%, a gap of 7 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 RIC?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 66.8%, 23 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 RIC?

July is the weakest month at 59.1% on time, compared with 83.5% in October. Across the year that is 24 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.

Where to go next

Direction matters. CLT to RIC and RIC to CLT are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures