Route reliability record
MEM→CLT
Memphis to Charlotte
- Flights
- 1,736
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 511 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 5 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 1,736 MEM to CLT flights, of which American Airlines flew 1,358 at 85.8% on time.
Best time to fly MEM to CLT: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.5% of the time and Wednesday flights 88.7%, against 82.0% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 5 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 47 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
82.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,697 completed flights
Avg delay
82 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.13%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
85.8% on time across 1,358 flights
These figures cover 1,736 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 11 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 MEM to CLT
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 85.8% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 67.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 378 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 1,358 | 85.8% | 83 min | 1.55% | A |
| PSA Airlines | 378 | 67.9% | 80 min | 4.23% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 4.2% 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.
Flight by flight
Flights on MEM to CLT
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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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Memphis to Charlotte
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. MEM → CLTMemphis to Charlotte | American Airlines | 84.5% | 85.8% | 1.55% | 11am–2pm, Tue | AA 1846 07:05 |
| 2. MEM → CLTMemphis to Charlotte | PSA Airlines | 65.0% | 67.9% | 4.23% | 2pm–5pm, 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 21 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am517 flights89.4%
- 8am–11am355 flights89.5%
- 11am–2pm221 flights84.1%
- 2pm–5pm309 flights73.4%
- 5pm–8pm334 flights68.8%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 89.5% of the time, against 68.8% for the evening window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 517 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MEM 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 MEM to CLT, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 89.5% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 68.8%, a wide gap of 20.7 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am89.4%
- 8–11am89.5%
- 11am–2pm84.1%
- 2–5pm73.4%
- 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 26 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 67.8% on time, 26 points below September, the best at 93.8%. 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. November was the busiest month here, with 153 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 88.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 77.4%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 47% of the 25,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%Late-arriving aircraft
- 38%Carrier
- 10%Extreme weather
- 5%National Airspace System
- 0%Security
47% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 25,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 25,008 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 38%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 9,448 of the 25,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 2.13% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.12%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.2% 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 511 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 73.8% on time across 1,737 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 1,736 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 calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 93.8% on time and July 67.8%, a swing of 26 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,697 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MEM to CLT questions
How often is MEM to CLT delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 18.0% of the 1,736 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 MEM to CLT?
American Airlines leads at 85.8% on time across 1,358 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 67.9%, 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 MEM to CLT?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 89.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.8%, 21 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 MEM to CLT?
July is the weakest month at 67.8% on time, compared with 93.8% in September. Across the year that is 26 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 MEM — the return legseparate record
- Memphis International (MEM) delay statistics
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- American Airlines on MEM to CLT85.8%
- PSA Airlines on MEM to CLT67.9%
- MEM to ATL, a related route86.2%
- MCO to CLT, a related route78.6%
- MEM to ORD, a related route74.8%
- American Airlines on-time record85.8%
- PSA Airlines on-time record67.9%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. MEM to CLT and CLT to MEM 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.