Route reliability record
CVG→FLL
Cincinnati to Fort Lauderdale
- Flights
- 975
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 932 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 975 CVG to FLL flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
Best time to fly CVG to FLL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 86.9% of the time and Wednesday flights 89.0%, against 76.3% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, 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.
Key figures
On time
76.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 962 completed flights
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.03%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
79.0% on time across 525 flights
These figures cover 975 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on CVG to FLL
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 525 | 79.0% | 77 min | 0.95% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 193 | 74.5% | 88 min | 2.07% | C |
| Allegiant Airthin sample | 257 | 72.2% | 61 min | 0.39% | C+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on CVG to FLL
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.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Cincinnati to Fort Lauderdale
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 1 of the top 2 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. CVG → MIACincinnati to Miami | Envoy Air | 83.3% | 83.8% | 0.63% | 5am–8am, Sat | MQ 3638 08:41 |
| 2. CVG → FLLCincinnati to Fort Lauderdale | Delta Air Lines | 78.2% | 79.0% | 0.95% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 661 14:39 |
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 20 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am294 flights86.9%
- 8am–11am124 flights73.8%
- 11am–2pm64 flights71.4%
- 2pm–5pm436 flights72.4%
- 5pm–8pm52 flights66.7%
- 8pm–5am5 flights—
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 86.9% of the time, against 66.7% for the evening window. That is 20 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 436 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CVG to FLL 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 CVG to FLL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 86.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 66.7%, a wide gap of 20.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am86.9%
- 8–11am73.8%
- 11am–2pm71.4%
- 2–5pm72.4%
- 5–8pm66.7%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 29 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 89.3% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 114 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 89.0% on time and Saturday the weakest at 62.9%, a spread of 26 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 17,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 23%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 17,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. The split is drawn from 16,921 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 86.9% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.03% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.31%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
8.4% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 932 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 70.3% on time across 975 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 975 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in FLL after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 975 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 76.3% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 962 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CVG to FLL questions
How often is CVG to FLL delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.7% of the 975 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is CVG to FLL compared with the rest of the country?
76.3% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about a point against it. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on CVG to FLL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 86.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 66.7%, 20 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 March delays on CVG to FLL?
March is the weakest month at 60.4% on time, compared with 89.3% in September. Across the year that is 29 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
- FLL to CVG — the return legseparate record
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG) delay statistics
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on CVG to FLL79.0%
- Frontier Airlines on CVG to FLL74.5%
- Allegiant Air on CVG to FLL72.2%
- CVG to ORD, a related route70.8%
- ATL to FLL, a related route70.7%
- CVG to ATL, a related route85.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record79.0%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record74.5%
- Allegiant Air on-time record72.2%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. CVG to FLL and FLL to CVG are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.