Route reliability record
PHL→CLT
Philadelphia to Charlotte
- Flights
- 3,535
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 449 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route lands a B, 3 points 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 3,535 PHL to CLT flights, of which American Airlines flew 2,876 at 82.2% on time.
Best time to fly PHL to CLT: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.6% of the time and Tuesday flights 86.3%, against 80.2% 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
80.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,431 completed flights
Avg delay
80 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.74%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
82.2% on time across 2,876 flights
These figures cover 3,535 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.1% 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 PHL to CLT
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 82.2% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 69.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 572 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 7 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 2,876 | 82.2% | 82 min | 2.68% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 80 | 80.0% | 68 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 572 | 69.8% | 74 min | 3.50% | C− |
Frontier Airlines cancels 3.5% 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 PHL 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 Philadelphia 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. 1 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. PHL → CLTPhiladelphia to Charlotte | American Airlines | 80.0% | 82.2% | 2.68% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 2. ABE → CLTAllentown to Charlotte | PSA Airlines | 79.4% | 82.7% | 3.96% | 11am–2pm, Fri | — |
| 3. PHL → CLTPhiladelphia to Charlotte | Frontier Airlines | 67.4% | 69.8% | 3.50% | 5am–8am, Tue | F9 2387 06:00 |
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 14 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am544 flights87.6%
- 8am–11am806 flights86.3%
- 11am–2pm514 flights80.7%
- 2pm–5pm697 flights73.7%
- 5pm–8pm813 flights75.4%
- 8pm–5am161 flights74.7%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.6% of the time, against 73.7% for the afternoon window. That is 14 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 813 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHL 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 PHL to CLT, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 87.6% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 73.7%, a wide gap of 13.9 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am87.6%
- 8–11am86.3%
- 11am–2pm80.7%
- 2–5pm73.7%
- 5–8pm75.4%
- 8pm–5am74.7%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 21 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 67.6% on time, 21 points below September, the best at 89.0%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 308 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 86.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.5%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 52% of the 54,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
52% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 54,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 18 to one. The split is drawn from 54,308 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 87.6% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.74%, 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
9.1% 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.
At 449 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 77.2% on time across 3,537 flights, 3 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 3 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 3,535 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 89.0% on time and July 67.6%, a swing of 21 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 3,431 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHL to CLT questions
How often is PHL 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 19.8% of the 3,535 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 PHL to CLT?
American Airlines leads at 82.2% on time across 2,876 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 69.8%, a gap of 12 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 PHL to CLT?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.6% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 73.7%, 14 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 PHL to CLT?
July is the weakest month at 67.6% on time, compared with 89.0% in September. Across the year that is 21 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 PHL — the return legseparate record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Charlotte Douglas International (CLT) delay statistics
- American Airlines on PHL to CLT82.2%
- Frontier Airlines on PHL to CLT69.8%
- PHL to ATL, a related route78.0%
- MCO to CLT, a related route78.6%
- PHL to MCO, a related route72.4%
- PSA Airlines on-time record100.0%
- American Airlines on-time record82.2%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record80.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PHL to CLT and CLT to PHL 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.