Route reliability record
MIA→CLT
Miami to Charlotte
- Flights
- 3,733
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 650 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 3,733 MIA to CLT flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Best time to fly MIA to CLT: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.6% of the time and Wednesday flights 84.7%, against 78.5% 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
78.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,668 completed flights
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.55%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
78.5% on time across 3,271 flights
These figures cover 3,733 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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 MIA 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 221 | 78.8% | 66 min | 4.07% | B− |
| American Airlines | 3,271 | 78.5% | 71 min | 1.35% | B |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 241 | 77.5% | 97 min | 2.07% | B |
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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Miami 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 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. FLL → CLTFort Lauderdale to Charlotte | American Airlines | 81.1% | 82.7% | 1.89% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 2. MIA → CLTMiami to Charlotte | American Airlines | 77.4% | 78.5% | 1.35% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 3. 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 24 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am665 flights92.6%
- 8am–11am641 flights86.7%
- 11am–2pm477 flights79.7%
- 2pm–5pm623 flights72.2%
- 5pm–8pm761 flights68.4%
- 8pm–5am566 flights71.7%
Scale runs 60% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.6% of the time, against 68.4% for the evening window. That is 24 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 761 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MIA 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 MIA to CLT, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.6% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 68.4%, a wide gap of 24.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.6%
- 8–11am86.7%
- 11am–2pm79.7%
- 2–5pm72.2%
- 5–8pm68.4%
- 8pm–5am71.7%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 16 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 69.0% on time, 16 points below October, the best at 85.2%. 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. December was the busiest month here, with 353 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.8%, a spread of 14 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 42% of the 57,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 57,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 56,989 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 92.6% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.55% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.19%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.9% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 650 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 77.0% on time across 3,731 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 3,733 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. October runs 85.2% on time and July 69.0%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 3,668 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MIA to CLT questions
How often is MIA to CLT delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.5% of the 3,733 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is MIA to CLT compared with the rest of the country?
78.5% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about a point in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MIA to CLT?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.6% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.4%, 24 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 MIA to CLT?
July is the weakest month at 69.0% on time, compared with 85.2% in October. Across the year that is 16 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 MIA — the return legseparate record
- Miami International (MIA) delay statistics
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- Spirit Airlines on MIA to CLT78.8%
- American Airlines on MIA to CLT78.5%
- Frontier Airlines on MIA to CLT77.5%
- MIA to ATL, a related route74.2%
- MCO to CLT, a related route78.6%
- MIA to LGA, a related route67.4%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record78.8%
- American Airlines on-time record78.5%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record77.5%
- 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. MIA to CLT and CLT to MIA 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.