Carrier performance at one airport
AA→LGA
American Airlines at LaGuardia
- Departures
- 16,772
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 12
- Rank here
- #5 of 9
American Airlines at New York carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.1% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 16,772 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 56,489 at 75.3% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs 2 points behind the 73.4% weighted average across all carriers at LGA. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
71.2%
16,002 completed departures
Avg delay
92 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
4.11%
At LGA, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at LGA
These figures cover 17,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at LGA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 75.3% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 60.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,383 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 56,489 | 75.3% | 68 min | 5.46% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines | 29,662 | 74.9% | 77 min | 3.79% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 4,871 | 72.7% | 82 min | 6.24% | C− |
| United Airlines | 9,061 | 71.9% | 85 min | 2.80% | C |
| American Airlines (this page) | 16,772 | 71.2% | 92 min | 4.11% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines | 11,713 | 70.0% | 67 min | 3.58% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 921 | 69.9% | 93 min | 5.21% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 4,495 | 66.6% | 81 min | 3.67% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,383 | 60.6% | 111 min | 5.58% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 6.2% 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.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from LGA
American Airlines operates 12 routes out of LGA with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LGA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 4,295 | 71.0% | 90 min | 4.98% | C− |
| LGA to MIA · Miami | 3,549 | 71.5% | 93 min | 3.69% | C− |
| LGA to ORD · Chicago | 2,947 | 67.5% | 94 min | 4.48% | C− |
| LGA to CLT · Charlotte | 2,804 | 78.0% | 107 min | 3.82% | B− |
| LGA to MCO · Orlando | 909 | 68.2% | 77 min | 3.19% | C− |
| LGA to TPA · Tampa | 690 | 67.4% | 77 min | 3.04% | C− |
| LGA to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 481 | 70.3% | 78 min | 3.95% | C− |
| LGA to PBI · West Palm Beach | 405 | 70.4% | 109 min | 3.95% | C− |
| LGA to MSY · New Orleansthin sample | 345 | 68.1% | 87 min | 2.61% | C |
| LGA to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample | 200 | 69.6% | 68 min | 4.50% | C− |
| LGA to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 35 | 45.5% | 105 min | 5.71% | F− |
| LGA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 34 | 73.5% | 125 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 31 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am3,122 flights88.1%
- 8am–11am3,269 flights78.7%
- 11am–2pm3,017 flights73.9%
- 2pm–5pm3,070 flights60.6%
- 5pm–8pm3,518 flights56.6%
- 8pm–5am776 flights67.4%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 56.6% on time, against 88.1% for the 5am–8am 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 3,518 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 63.6% on time, against 78.7% in January. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 1,531 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%National Airspace System
- 20%Carrier
- 8%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% 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 423,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 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 423,278 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.11%, against 1.81% 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.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 12.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
16,772 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.11% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 16,002 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at LGA
How often is American Airlines at LGA delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 28.8% of the 16,772 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at LGA?
Republic Airways leads at 75.3% on time across 56,489 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 60.6%, a gap of 15 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 American Airlines at LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 56.6%, 31 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 American Airlines at LGA?
December is the weakest month at 63.6% on time, compared with 78.7% in January. Across the year that is 15 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
- American Airlines network-wide record
- LaGuardia (LGA) all carriers
- LGA to DFW route record71.0%
- LGA to MIA route record71.5%
- LGA to ORD route record67.5%
- LGA to CLT route record78.0%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.