Carrier route record
AAPHX→CLE
American Airlines · Phoenix to Cleveland
- Flights
- 318
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 31%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on PHX to CLE lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 318 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on PHX to CLE from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 317 completed flights
Avg delay
86 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.31%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
73.3%
Every carrier on PHX to CLE, 1,012 flights
These figures cover 318 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on PHX to CLE
American flew 318 of the 1,012 flights on PHX to CLE, about 31% of it. Its 77.3% on time is 4 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 73.3%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 77.3% to Southwest at 67.1%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines (this page)thin sample | 318 | 77.3% | 86 min | 0.31% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 328 | 76.2% | 81 min | 1.83% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 366 | 67.1% | 44 min | 0.00% | C+ |
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.
Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 318 flights.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm4 flights—
- 2pm–5pm270 flights78.1%
- 5pm–8pm41 flights75.6%
- 8pm–5am3 flights—
Scale runs 65% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 2pm–5pm window is the strongest at 78.1% on time. The full set of windows spans 3 points.
Across the year
American on PHX to CLE through the year
- Oct–Dec 202589 flights80.9%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights77.5%
- Apr–Jun 202688 flights79.5%
- Jul–Sep 202651 flights66.7%
Scale runs 60% to 85%.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 77.3% on time across 318 flights.
American on PHX to CLE did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Oct–Dec 2025 at 80.9% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 66.7%, a swing of 14 points on roughly 80 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.0% on time and Monday the weakest at 72.9%, a spread of 8 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on PHX to CLE runs when it is late
American on PHX to CLE often beats the schedule: 96 of 317 completed flights, 30%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 72 late arrivals split 18 under half an hour, 21 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 33 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early96 flights30.3%
- Within 15 min149 flights47.0%
- 15–29 min late18 flights5.7%
- 30–59 min late21 flights6.6%
- 1–2 hours late21 flights6.6%
- 2+ hours late12 flights3.8%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 317 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
20 of 83 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 24% of them. 9 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for American on PHX to CLE
The latest arrival of the period was on 15 February 2026, 15 hours 3 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). Three of the five worst days fell in July 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 15 February 2026 | 15 hours 3 minutes | Carrier |
| 12 July 2026 | 4 hours 54 minutes | Carrier |
| 2 July 2026 | 4 hours 8 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 25 July 2026 | 4 hours | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 26 January 2026 | 3 hours 55 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 6,155 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 39%Carrier
- 5%National Airspace System
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 6,155 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 56 to one. The split is drawn from 6,155 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 39%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 2,381 of the 6,155 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.31%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
10.4% 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 1,737 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 82.5% on time across 318 flights, 5 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 5 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 318 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.
What to do with this
Booking American on PHX to CLE
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 318 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 77.3% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 317 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- PHX to CLE, every carrier
- American on CLE to PHX, the return leg
- Frontier Airlines on PHX to CLE76.2%
- Southwest Airlines on PHX to CLE67.1%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
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.