• Thermoplastic CF/PEKK and CF/epoxy showed similar ANOVA results for thrust force and maximum hole wall temperature, with feed rate being the most influential factor (contribution > 95% for thrust force and > 65% for hole wall temperature). However, ANOVA results for delamination factor suggested that the second order term of feed rate was the most influential factor for CF/PEKK delamination damage (48.8% contribution), while the first order term of feed rate dominated the delamination of CF/epoxy (90.3% contribution). Such difference can be attributed to the thermoplastic nature of CF/PEEK and its distinctly different thermal-mechanical properties from CF/epoxy. The results of CF/epoxy drilling performance are also compared against previous studies to guarantee its reliability and robustness.