Carrier route record
AACLT→STL
American Airlines · Charlotte to St. Louis
- Flights
- 1,487
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 81%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on CLT to STL lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.6%. 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 is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 1,487 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate American on CLT to STL from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,463 completed flights
Avg delay
70 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.28%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
78.7%
Every carrier on CLT to STL, 1,826 flights
These figures cover 1,487 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.7% 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 STL
American flew 1,487 of the 1,826 flights on CLT to STL, most of the route. Its 77.6% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 78.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from PSA at 88.4% to American at 77.6%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 75 | 88.4% | 71 min | 6.67% | A− |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 264 | 82.4% | 68 min | 1.14% | B |
| American Airlines (this page) | 1,487 | 77.6% | 70 min | 1.28% | B |
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 18 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–8am196 flights89.3%
- 8am–11am88 flights80.7%
- 11am–2pm294 flights79.8%
- 2pm–5pm219 flights71.8%
- 5pm–8pm439 flights74.2%
- 8pm–5am251 flights75.3%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.3% of the time, against 71.8% for the afternoon window. That is 18 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 439 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on CLT to STL through the year
July is the worst month at 61.2% on time, 28 points below November, the best at 88.8%. 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. June was the busiest month here, with 142 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.3% on time and Monday the weakest at 67.3%. 16 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 52% of the 23,000 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.
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 8%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
52% 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 23,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 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 23,027 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 89.3% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.28% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.34%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.7% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 575 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 84.6% on time across 1,490 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 1,487 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 STL
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. November runs 88.8% on time and July 61.2%, a swing of 28 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,463 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- CLT to STL, every carrier
- American on STL to CLT, the return leg
- Southwest Airlines on CLT to STL82.4%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- St. Louis Lambert International (STL) 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.