Carrier route record
AALGA→CLT
American Airlines · New York to Charlotte
- Flights
- 2,769
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 66%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on LGA to CLT carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.8% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four 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 2,769 flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on LGA to CLT from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,660 completed flights
Avg delay
104 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.79%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
75.8%
Every carrier on LGA to CLT, 4,197 flights
These figures cover 2,769 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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
American against every carrier on LGA to CLT
American flew 2,769 of the 4,197 flights on LGA to CLT, most of the route. Its 77.4% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 75.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 77.7% to Frontier at 58.5%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 Airways | 924 | 77.7% | 68 min | 5.09% | B− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 2,769 | 77.4% | 104 min | 3.79% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 262 | 68.7% | 68 min | 7.25% | C− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 242 | 58.5% | 71 min | 7.44% | D− |
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.
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 36 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am614 flights90.5%
- 8am–11am607 flights81.5%
- 11am–2pm405 flights77.7%
- 2pm–5pm373 flights71.4%
- 5pm–8pm708 flights67.1%
- 8pm–5am62 flights55.0%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 55.0% on time, against 90.5% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 708 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on LGA to CLT through the year
December is the weak month at 65.4% on time, against 87.7% in September. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 268 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 68.4%, a spread of 16 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on LGA to CLT runs when it is late
American on LGA to CLT often beats the schedule: 1,021 of 2,660 completed flights, 38%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 602 late arrivals split 178 under half an hour, 153 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 271 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early1,021 flights38.4%
- Within 15 min1,037 flights39.0%
- 15–29 min late178 flights6.7%
- 30–59 min late153 flights5.8%
- 1–2 hours late138 flights5.2%
- 2+ hours late133 flights5.0%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 2,660 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
129 of 582 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 22% of them. In the other direction, 149 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at CLT.
The worst days
Worst days for American on LGA to CLT
The latest arrival of the period was on 26 January 2026, 32 hours 29 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 26 January 2026 | 32 hours 29 minutes | Carrier |
| 13 July 2026 | 23 hours 58 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 23 May 2026 | 23 hours 38 minutes | Carrier |
| 1 March 2026 | 22 hours 11 minutes | Carrier |
| 19 July 2026 | 18 hours 51 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 48% of the 63,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
48% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 63,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 62,712 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 90.5% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.79%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about 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 costs
10.2% 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 544 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 69.8% on time across 2,767 flights, 8 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 8 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,769 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.
What to do with this
Booking American on LGA to CLT
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.79% 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. 2,660 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- LGA to CLT, every carrier
- American on CLT to LGA, the return leg
- Republic Airways on LGA to CLT77.7%
- Spirit Airlines on LGA to CLT68.7%
- Frontier Airlines on LGA to CLT58.5%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.