Route reliability record
CVG→PHL
Cincinnati to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 1,324
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 507 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.7% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 1,324 CVG to PHL flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
Best time to fly CVG to PHL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Friday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.1% of the time and Friday flights 82.2%, against 79.5% 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
79.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,273 completed flights
Avg delay
107 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.70%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
78.7% on time across 1,166 flights
These figures cover 1,324 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.4% 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 PHL
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 128 | 91.3% | 65 min | 0.78% | A+ |
| PSA Airlines | 1,166 | 78.7% | 106 min | 4.12% | B− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 30 | 60.0% | 158 min | 0.00% | D+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on CVG to PHL
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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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 18 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am242 flights87.1%
- 8am–11am325 flights84.3%
- 11am–2pm330 flights75.6%
- 2pm–5pm244 flights78.7%
- 5pm–8pm183 flights68.8%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.1% of the time, against 68.8% for the evening 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 330 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CVG to PHL 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 PHL, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 87.1% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 68.8%, a wide gap of 18.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am87.1%
- 8–11am84.3%
- 11am–2pm75.6%
- 2–5pm78.7%
- 5–8pm68.8%
- 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 23 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 67.7% on time, against 90.2% in April. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 147 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 82.2% on time and Thursday the weakest at 76.9%, a spread of 5 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 28,000 reported delay minutes.
- 39%Carrier
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 15%National Airspace System
- 9%Extreme weather
37% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 28,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 4 to one. The split is drawn from 27,784 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 39%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 11,000 of the 28,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 3.70%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 25 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
10.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
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 runs 76.6% on time across 1,321 flights, within 3 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,324 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 PHL after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.70% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 1,273 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CVG to PHL questions
How often is CVG to PHL delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 20.5% of the 1,324 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is CVG to PHL compared with the rest of the country?
79.5% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on CVG to PHL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.8%, 18 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 CVG to PHL?
December is the weakest month at 67.7% on time, compared with 90.2% in April. Across the year that is 23 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
- PHL to CVG — the return legseparate record
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on CVG to PHL91.3%
- PSA Airlines on CVG to PHL78.7%
- CVG to ORD, a related route70.8%
- ATL to PHL, a related route74.6%
- CVG to ATL, a related route85.4%
- Republic Airways on-time record91.3%
- PSA Airlines on-time record78.7%
- American Airlines on-time record60.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. CVG to PHL and PHL 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.