Route reliability record
PHL→CVG
Philadelphia to Cincinnati
- Flights
- 1,321
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 507 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.1% 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 1,321 PHL to CVG flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly PHL to CVG: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.0% of the time and Wednesday flights 82.6%, against 76.6% 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
76.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,265 completed flights
Avg delay
96 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.09%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
PSA
74.2% on time across 1,163 flights
These figures cover 1,321 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.3% 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 CVG
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 Airwaysthin sample | 128 | 94.5% | 105 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 30 | 90.0% | 74 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| PSA Airlines | 1,163 | 74.2% | 96 min | 4.64% | C− |
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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 22 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am377 flights88.0%
- 11am–2pm230 flights81.4%
- 2pm–5pm192 flights73.0%
- 5pm–8pm425 flights66.3%
- 8pm–5am97 flights71.1%
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 88.0% of the time, against 66.3% for the evening window. That is 22 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 425 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter PHL to CVG 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 CVG, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 88.0% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 66.3%, a wide gap of 21.7 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am88.0%
- 11am–2pm81.4%
- 2–5pm73.0%
- 5–8pm66.3%
- 8pm–5am71.1%
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 35 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.
December is the weak month at 55.8% on time, against 90.9% in April. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 146 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.6% on time and Thursday the weakest at 69.5%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 49% of the 28,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%Carrier
- 13%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
49% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 28,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 28,410 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 88.0% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.09%, 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 actually costs
12.3% 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 507 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 79.5% on time across 1,324 flights, within 3 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 1,321 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 CVG after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.09% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 1,265 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
PHL to CVG questions
How often is PHL to CVG 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 23.4% of the 1,321 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is PHL to CVG compared with the rest of the country?
76.6% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of half a point against it. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on PHL to CVG?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 88.0% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 66.3%, 22 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 December delays on PHL to CVG?
December is the weakest month at 55.8% on time, compared with 90.9% in April. Across the year that is 35 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
- CVG to PHL — the return legseparate record
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International (CVG) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on PHL to CVG94.5%
- PSA Airlines on PHL to CVG74.2%
- PHL to ATL, a related route78.0%
- ORD to CVG, a related route72.1%
- PHL to MCO, a related route72.4%
- Republic Airways on-time record94.5%
- American Airlines on-time record90.0%
- PSA Airlines on-time record74.2%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. PHL to CVG and CVG 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.