Route reliability record
FLL→CLT
Fort Lauderdale to Charlotte
- Flights
- 3,060
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 632 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 an hour and a half on average. That rests on 3,060 FLL to CLT flights, of which American Airlines flew 2,068 at 82.7% on time.
Best time to fly FLL to CLT: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.6% of the time and Tuesday flights 83.1%, 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 2,969 completed flights
Avg delay
83 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.81%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
82.7% on time across 2,068 flights
These figures cover 3,060 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.6% 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 CLT
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 82.7% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 68.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 606 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 2,068 | 82.7% | 94 min | 1.89% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 606 | 68.5% | 68 min | 4.79% | C− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 224 | 61.7% | 78 min | 6.70% | D− |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 162 | 58.2% | 69 min | 1.85% | D |
Spirit Airlines cancels 4.8% 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 Charlotte
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. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PBI → CLTWest Palm Beach to Charlotte | American Airlines | 83.0% | 84.3% | 1.53% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 2. FLL → CLTFort Lauderdale to Charlotte | American Airlines | 81.1% | 82.7% | 1.89% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 3. MIA → CLTMiami to Charlotte | American Airlines | 77.4% | 78.5% | 1.35% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 4. FLL → CLTFort Lauderdale to Charlotte | Spirit Airlines | 65.2% | 68.5% | 4.79% | 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 38 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am629 flights92.6%
- 8am–11am579 flights90.2%
- 11am–2pm477 flights74.9%
- 2pm–5pm572 flights73.3%
- 5pm–8pm556 flights61.2%
- 8pm–5am247 flights54.1%
Scale runs 45% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 54.1% on time, against 92.6% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 629 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter FLL to CLT 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 CLT, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.6% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 54.1%, a wide gap of 38.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.6%
- 8–11am90.2%
- 11am–2pm74.9%
- 2–5pm73.3%
- 5–8pm61.2%
- 8pm–5am54.1%
best all US flightsScale 45% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 27 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.
July is the worst month at 60.9% on time, 27 points below November, the best at 88.2%. 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 324 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 83.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.6%, a spread of 14 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 56,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 37%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 56,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 to one. The split is drawn from 56,095 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 37%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 21,000 of the 56,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 2.81%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
9.6% 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 632 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 75.7% on time across 3,060 flights, within 2 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 3,060 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 CLT after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 2.81% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 2,969 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
FLL to CLT questions
How often is FLL to CLT 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 3,060 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on FLL to CLT?
American Airlines leads at 82.7% on time across 2,068 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 68.5%, a gap of 14 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 CLT?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.6% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 54.1%, 38 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 July delays on FLL to CLT?
July is the weakest month at 60.9% on time, compared with 88.2% in November. Across the year that is 27 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
- CLT to FLL — the return legseparate record
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- American Airlines on FLL to CLT82.7%
- Spirit Airlines on FLL to CLT68.5%
- Frontier Airlines on FLL to CLT61.7%
- JetBlue Airways on FLL to CLT58.2%
- FLL to ATL, a related route71.0%
- MCO to CLT, a related route78.6%
- FLL to LGA, a related route64.8%
- American Airlines on-time record82.7%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record68.5%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record61.7%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. FLL to CLT and CLT 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.