Carrier route record
AACLT→RIC
American Airlines · Charlotte to Richmond
- Flights
- 1,995
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 80%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on CLT to RIC sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 1,995 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate American on CLT to RIC from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
74.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,954 completed flights
Avg delay
64 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.01%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
76.1%
Every carrier on CLT to RIC, 2,497 flights
These figures cover 1,995 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.5% 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
American against every carrier on CLT to RIC
American flew 1,995 of the 2,497 flights on CLT to RIC, most of the route. Its 74.7% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 76.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 85.7% to American at 74.7%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 (this page) | 1,995 | 74.7% | 64 min | 2.01% | C |
Flight by flight
American flight numbers on CLT to RIC
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. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am224 flights89.7%
- 8am–11am130 flights86.6%
- 11am–2pm307 flights83.4%
- 2pm–5pm387 flights72.5%
- 5pm–8pm330 flights65.4%
- 8pm–5am617 flights68.6%
Scale runs 55% 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 65.4% for the evening 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 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 617 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on CLT to RIC through the year
July is the worst month at 46.6% on time, 35 points below October, the best at 81.2%. 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. April was the busiest month here, with 199 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.3%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 53% of the 32,000 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.
- 53%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 9%Extreme weather
- 9%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
53% 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 32,000 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 31,515 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 2.01% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.05%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.5% 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 last about an hour, 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 84.2% on time across 1,996 flights, 10 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 10 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,995 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 RIC
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. October runs 81.2% on time and July 46.6%, a swing of 35 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,954 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- CLT to RIC, every carrier
- American on RIC to CLT, the return leg
- PSA Airlines on CLT to RIC81.4%
- 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 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.