Carrier route record
AACLT→TPA
American Airlines · Charlotte to Tampa
- Flights
- 2,884
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 95%
- 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 TPA lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 2,884 flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on CLT to TPA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
76.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,835 completed flights
Avg delay
63 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.56%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
76.6%
Every carrier on CLT to TPA, 3,038 flights
These figures cover 2,884 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 5 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 TPA
American flew 2,884 of the 3,038 flights on CLT to TPA, most of the route. Its 76.6% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 76.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Spirit at 82.5% to Frontier at 73.6%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 40 | 82.5% | 64 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlines (this page) | 2,884 | 76.6% | 63 min | 1.56% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 114 | 73.6% | 85 min | 3.51% | C− |
Flight by flight
American flight numbers on CLT to TPA
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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 30 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am91 flights93.4%
- 8am–11am632 flights88.1%
- 11am–2pm595 flights80.6%
- 2pm–5pm462 flights73.8%
- 5pm–8pm609 flights71.4%
- 8pm–5am495 flights63.2%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 63.2% on time, against 93.4% for the 5am–8am 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 632 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on CLT to TPA through the year
August is the worst month at 64.5% on time, 19 points below September, the best at 83.3%. 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 269 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.5%, a spread of 19 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on CLT to TPA runs when it is late
The 662 late arrivals split 241 under half an hour, 200 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 221 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early668 flights23.6%
- Within 15 min1,505 flights53.1%
- 15–29 min late241 flights8.5%
- 30–59 min late200 flights7.1%
- 1–2 hours late149 flights5.3%
- 2+ hours late72 flights2.5%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 2,835 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
121 of 665 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 18% of them. 118 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on CLT to TPA
The latest arrival of the period was on 26 February 2026, 14 hours 45 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 26 February 2026 | 14 hours 45 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 15 March 2026 | 11 hours 10 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 12 February 2026 | 10 hours 52 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 12 July 2026 | 10 hours 27 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 16 April 2026 | 9 hours 26 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 42,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 42,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 41,892 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 93.4% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.56% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.14%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
7.8% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 507 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.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 83.6% on time across 2,886 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 2,884 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 TPA
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 83.3% on time and August 64.5%, a swing of 19 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 2,835 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- CLT to TPA, every carrier
- American on TPA to CLT, the return leg
- Frontier Airlines on CLT to TPA73.6%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- Tampa International (TPA) 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.