Route reliability record
CMH→PHX
Columbus to Phoenix
- Flights
- 1,141
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,670 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 1,141 CMH to PHX flights, of which American Airlines flew 610 at 85.0% on time.
Best time to fly CMH to PHX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.4% of the time and Wednesday flights 88.1%, against 82.7% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 5 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 54 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
82.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,123 completed flights
Avg delay
100 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.31%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
85.0% on time across 610 flights
These figures cover 1,141 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on CMH to PHX
The two carriers here are closely matched: 5 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 610 | 85.0% | 160 min | 1.48% | A |
| Southwest Airlines | 531 | 80.2% | 49 min | 1.13% | B |
No carrier stands out. American tops the table at 85.0%, 5 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.
Flight by flight
Flights on CMH to PHX
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Columbus to Phoenix
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. CMH → PHXColumbus to Phoenix | American Airlines | 83.7% | 85.0% | 1.48% | 8am–11am, Fri | AA 1958 07:30 |
| 2. CMH → PHXColumbus to Phoenix | Southwest Airlines | 79.3% | 80.2% | 1.13% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
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 29 points, against 5 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am463 flights91.4%
- 8am–11am149 flights89.7%
- 11am–2pm32 flights71.9%
- 2pm–5pm92 flights62.6%
- 5pm–8pm392 flights75.8%
- 8pm–5am13 flights—
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 91.4% of the time, against 62.6% for the afternoon window. That is 29 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 463 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CMH to PHX 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 CMH to PHX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.4% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 62.6%, a wide gap of 28.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.4%
- 8–11am89.7%
- 11am–2pm71.9%
- 2–5pm62.6%
- 5–8pm75.8%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 15 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.
December is the weak month at 73.7% on time, against 88.6% in August. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. March was the busiest month here, with 128 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.1% on time and Monday the weakest at 77.9%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 61% of the 19,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 61%Carrier
- 27%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 61%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 12,000 of the 19,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 19,468 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.31% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.26%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
5.3% 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 close to two hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,670 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 70.6% on time across 1,140 flights, 12 points below 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 12 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,141 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 PHX 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. August runs 88.6% on time and December 73.7%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 1,123 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CMH to PHX questions
How often is CMH to PHX delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.3% of the 1,141 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
Which airline is most reliable on CMH to PHX?
American Airlines leads at 85.0% on time across 610 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 80.2%, a gap of 5 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 CMH to PHX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.4% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 62.6%, 29 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 December delays on CMH to PHX?
December is the weakest month at 73.7% on time, compared with 88.6% in August. Across the year that is 15 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
- PHX to CMH — the return legseparate record
- John Glenn Columbus International (CMH) delay statistics
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- American Airlines on CMH to PHX85.0%
- Southwest Airlines on CMH to PHX80.2%
- CMH to ORD, a related route75.4%
- DEN to PHX, a related route75.6%
- CMH to ATL, a related route84.8%
- American Airlines on-time record85.0%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record80.2%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. CMH to PHX and PHX to CMH are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed CMH to PHX’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.