Route reliability record
MDW→CLT
Chicago to Charlotte
- Flights
- 722
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 584 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about 50 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 722 MDW to CLT flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes early.
Best time to fly MDW to CLT: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.2% of the time and Wednesday flights 82.5%, against 73.2% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 4 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 41 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
73.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 713 completed flights
Avg delay
50 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.25%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Southwest
73.2% on time across 722 flights
These figures cover 722 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 2 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on MDW to CLT
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 722 | 73.2% | 50 min | 1.25% | C |
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Chicago 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. 3 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. ORD → CLTChicago to Charlotte | Republic Airways | 77.7% | 79.4% | 2.19% | 8am–11am, Thu | — |
| 2. ORD → CLTChicago to Charlotte | American Airlines | 73.0% | 74.7% | 2.32% | 5am–8am, Tue | AA 1784 07:10 |
| 3. MDW → CLTChicago to Charlotte | Southwest Airlines | 72.3% | 73.2% | 1.25% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 4. ORD → CLTChicago to Charlotte | United Airlines | 67.4% | 68.1% | 1.01% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
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 31 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am169 flights89.2%
- 11am–2pm215 flights80.1%
- 2pm–5pm25 flights—
- 5pm–8pm269 flights59.6%
- 8pm–5am44 flights58.1%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 58.1% on time, against 89.2% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 269 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MDW 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 MDW to CLT, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 89.2% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 58.1%, a wide gap of 31.1 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am89.2%
- 11am–2pm80.1%
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm59.6%
- 8pm–5am58.1%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 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.
April is the best month on the calendar at 83.3% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 84 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 60.2%, a spread of 22 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 49% of the 9,563 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%Carrier
- 10%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
49% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 9,563 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 9,563 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 34%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 3,259 of the 9,563 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.25% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.9% 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 about 50 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 584 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 76.4% on time across 722 flights, 3 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 3 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 722 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 CLT after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 722 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 73.2% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 713 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MDW to CLT questions
How often is MDW to CLT 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 26.8% of the 722 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 50 minutes on average.
How reliable is MDW to CLT compared with the rest of the country?
73.2% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 4 points against it. That is worth a C on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MDW to CLT?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 89.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 58.1%, 31 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 MDW to CLT?
March is the weakest month at 63.8% on time, compared with 83.3% in April. Across the year that is 20 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 MDW — the return legseparate record
- Chicago Midway International (MDW) delay statistics
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- MDW to ATL, a related route78.7%
- MCO to CLT, a related route78.6%
- MDW to PHX, a related route74.7%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record73.2%
- 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. MDW to CLT and CLT to MDW 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.