Carrier route record

ASSEA→CVG

Alaska Airlines · Seattle to Cincinnati

Flights: 431
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route: 54%
Carriers: 2

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Alaska Airlines.

Alaska on SEA to CVG lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.6%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 45 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 431 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Alaska on SEA to CVG from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

77.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 425 completed flights

Avg delay

46 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.93%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

81.7%

Every carrier on SEA to CVG, 793 flights

These figures cover 431 flights between July 2025 and June 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.

Carrier by carrier

Alaska against every carrier on SEA to CVG

Alaska flew 431 of the 793 flights on SEA to CVG, most of the route. Its 77.2% on time is 5 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 81.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from Delta at 87.1% to Alaska at 77.2%. 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.

On-time performance by carrier on SEA to CVG
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Linesthin sample	362	87.1%	62 min	0.83%	A+
Alaska Airlines (this page)	431	77.2%	46 min	0.93%	B+

Flight by flight

Alaska flight numbers on SEA to CVG

AS 50810:1279.7% · 361 flights

Departure window

When Alaska runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 20 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am—
8am–11am249 flights77.6%
11am–2pm112 flights84.4%
2pm–5pm—
5pm–8pm—
8pm–5am70 flights64.3%

Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.3% on time, against 84.4% for the 11am–2pm slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 249 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

Alaska on SEA to CVG through the year

Jul–Sep 2025140 flights66.7%
Oct–Dec 202589 flights79.5%
Jan–Mar 202689 flights82.6%
Apr–Jun 2026113 flights84.1%

Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 77.2% on time across 431 flights.

Alaska on SEA to CVG did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 84.1% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2025 at 66.7%, a swing of 17 points on roughly 108 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, Wednesday is the strongest day at 85.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 61.7%. 24 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Delay causes

Why Alaska runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 43% of the 4,479 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.

Carrier
43%
Late-arriving aircraft
36%
National Airspace System
22%

36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 4,479 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 36 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 4,479 reported delay minutes.

The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 1,907 of the 4,479 delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations sit at 0.93% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.46%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

5.2% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last roughly 45 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.

At 1,965 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 65.6% on time across 431 flights, 12 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 12 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 431 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 Alaska on SEA to CVG

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 431 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 77.2% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 425 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures