Route reliability record
FLL→CLE
Fort Lauderdale to Cleveland
- Flights
- 1,306
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,062 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. 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 rests on 1,306 FLL to CLE flights, of which United Airlines flew 551 at 89.0% on time.
Best time to fly FLL to CLE: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.6% of the time and Wednesday flights 91.8%, against 77.2% 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
77.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,270 completed flights
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.68%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
89.0% on time across 551 flights
These figures cover 1,306 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.5% 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 FLL to CLE
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 89.0% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 70.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 514 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 551 | 89.0% | 74 min | 0.91% | A+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 514 | 70.6% | 89 min | 3.31% | C− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 186 | 63.8% | 62 min | 4.84% | D− |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 55 | 60.8% | 66 min | 7.27% | D− |
Frontier Airlines cancels 3.3% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Fort Lauderdale to Cleveland
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 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. FLL → CLEFort Lauderdale to Cleveland | United Airlines | 88.2% | 89.0% | 0.91% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 2. MIA → CLEMiami to Cleveland | American Airlines | 69.1% | 69.9% | 1.10% | 5pm–8pm, Tue | — |
| 3. FLL → CLEFort Lauderdale to Cleveland | Frontier Airlines | 68.3% | 70.6% | 3.31% | 11am–2pm, 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 25 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am28 flights—
- 8am–11am190 flights87.6%
- 11am–2pm357 flights85.1%
- 2pm–5pm347 flights74.3%
- 5pm–8pm110 flights62.6%
- 8pm–5am274 flights69.6%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 62.6% on time, against 87.6% for the 8am–11am 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 357 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter FLL to CLE 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 FLL to CLE, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 87.6% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 62.6%, a wide gap of 25.0 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am87.6%
- 11am–2pm85.1%
- 2–5pm74.3%
- 5–8pm62.6%
- 8pm–5am69.6%
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 24 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.
May is the best month on the calendar at 88.8% 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 160 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 91.8% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.6%, a spread of 24 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 23,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 23,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 26 to one. The split is drawn from 22,683 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 87.6% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.68%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 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
8.5% 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 1,062 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 81.9% on time across 1,305 flights, 5 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 5 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,306 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 CLE 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. May runs 88.8% on time and March 64.7%, a swing of 24 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of March before you think about anything else. 1,270 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
FLL to CLE questions
How often is FLL to CLE delayed?
Roughly 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 22.8% of the 1,306 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on FLL to CLE?
United Airlines leads at 89.0% on time across 551 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 70.6%, a gap of 18 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 FLL to CLE?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 87.6% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 62.6%, 25 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 FLL to CLE?
March is the weakest month at 64.7% on time, compared with 88.8% in May. Across the year that is 24 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
- CLE to FLL — the return legseparate record
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE) delay statistics
- United Airlines on FLL to CLE89.0%
- Frontier Airlines on FLL to CLE70.6%
- Spirit Airlines on FLL to CLE63.8%
- FLL to ATL, a related route71.0%
- ORD to CLE, a related route70.8%
- FLL to LGA, a related route64.8%
- United Airlines on-time record89.0%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record70.6%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record63.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. FLL to CLE and CLE to FLL 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.