Carrier performance at one airport
DL→LGA
Delta Air Lines at LaGuardia
- Departures
- 29,531
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #2 of 9
Delta Air Lines at New York carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.3% 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 C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 29,531 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 56,427 at 74.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 2 points ahead of the 72.4% 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
74.0%
28,160 completed departures
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
4.28%
At LGA, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at LGA
These figures cover 30,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Against the competition
Every carrier at LGA, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 74.2% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 57.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,324 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 56,427 | 74.2% | 69 min | 6.00% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 29,531 | 74.0% | 78 min | 4.28% | C− |
| United Airlines | 9,068 | 71.4% | 88 min | 3.11% | C− |
| American Airlines | 17,147 | 71.1% | 92 min | 4.16% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 3,953 | 70.8% | 80 min | 6.96% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines | 11,715 | 68.7% | 67 min | 4.30% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 630 | 66.4% | 89 min | 4.44% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 4,458 | 66.4% | 79 min | 4.46% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,324 | 57.3% | 112 min | 7.31% | D− |
Frontier Airlines cancels 7.3% 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 Delta Air Lines flies from LGA
Delta Air Lines operates 25 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 ATL · Atlanta | 4,935 | 79.1% | 73 min | 3.55% | B− |
| LGA to ORD · Chicago | 2,309 | 65.8% | 97 min | 5.89% | C− |
| LGA to MCO · Orlando | 2,161 | 72.4% | 70 min | 4.58% | C− |
| LGA to DTW · Detroit | 1,982 | 81.0% | 87 min | 4.09% | B− |
| LGA to MIA · Miami | 1,916 | 70.2% | 70 min | 3.91% | C− |
| LGA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,851 | 69.8% | 73 min | 4.97% | C− |
| LGA to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,811 | 81.6% | 89 min | 2.93% | B |
| LGA to TPA · Tampa | 1,724 | 73.2% | 77 min | 3.54% | C− |
| LGA to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 1,589 | 70.6% | 66 min | 3.90% | C− |
| LGA to PBI · West Palm Beach | 1,434 | 71.9% | 69 min | 4.32% | C− |
| LGA to IAH · Houston | 1,347 | 74.0% | 87 min | 4.53% | C− |
| LGA to DEN · Denver | 1,033 | 70.7% | 68 min | 4.55% | C− |
| LGA to MCI · Kansas City | 972 | 70.0% | 82 min | 5.97% | C− |
| LGA to MSY · New Orleans | 689 | 79.1% | 73 min | 4.79% | B− |
| LGA to RSW · Fort Myers | 669 | 74.4% | 82 min | 4.78% | C− |
| LGA to SRQ · Sarasota | 531 | 80.7% | 80 min | 5.84% | B− |
| LGA to BOS · Boston | 469 | 73.2% | 82 min | 4.48% | C− |
| LGA to BNA · Nashville | 450 | 70.3% | 84 min | 4.22% | C− |
| LGA to CHS · Charleston | 395 | 66.6% | 74 min | 4.81% | C− |
| LGA to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 344 | 80.8% | 71 min | 4.65% | B− |
| LGA to MYR · Myrtle Beachthin sample | 258 | 78.3% | 67 min | 1.94% | B |
| LGA to CVG · Cincinnatithin sample | 183 | 69.5% | 82 min | 3.28% | C− |
| LGA to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 117 | 58.4% | 84 min | 3.42% | D− |
| LGA to JAX · Jacksonvillethin sample | 103 | 73.2% | 82 min | 5.83% | C− |
| LGA to SAV · Savannahthin sample | 30 | 56.7% | 54 min | 0.00% | D+ |
Flight by flight
Delta Air Lines flight numbers from LGA
52 Delta Air Lines flight numbers leaving LGA flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.
- DL 342to ATL 06:5993.1%
- DL 364to ATL 07:5991.1%
- DL 550to ATL 06:0089.4%
- DL 964to ATL 18:0069.0%
- DL 968to ATL 17:0074.1%
- DL 969to ATL 16:0067.6%
- DL 974to ATL 15:0079.6%
- DL 975to ATL 20:3066.4%
- DL 988to ATL 13:5973.4%
- DL 989to ATL 10:0082.3%
- DL 990to ATL 12:0082.8%
- DL 992to ATL 09:0086.0%
- DL 993to ATL 11:0082.6%
- DL 994to ATL 13:0078.6%
- DL 710to DEN 18:2958.4%
- DL 716to DEN 13:5970.0%
- DL 751to DEN 07:3081.7%
- DL 846to DFW 15:0063.7%
- DL 873to DFW 09:1575.9%
- DL 999to DTW 17:0073.9%
- DL 1014to DTW 20:0069.3%
- DL 1078to DTW 09:3088.1%
- DL 1122to DTW 12:5579.8%
- DL 1231to DTW 06:0095.6%
- DL 2308to FLL 19:2063.2%
- DL 2321to FLL 15:1067.1%
- DL 2465to FLL 07:0578.3%
- DL 2099to IAH 10:1074.4%
- DL 2109to IAH 18:2961.3%
- DL 2930to IAH 13:4571.7%
- DL 563to MCI 15:5566.9%
- DL 572to MCI 08:3080.9%
- DL 2068to MCI 15:3558.2%
- DL 2520to MCO 15:4059.9%
- DL 2561to MCO 17:5567.4%
- DL 2564to MCO 11:3080.2%
- DL 2300to MIA 14:5963.1%
- DL 2347to MIA 07:0588.4%
- DL 2382to MIA 19:5558.9%
- DL 2313to MSP 18:2971.5%
- DL 2349to MSP 14:5972.1%
- DL 2409to MSP 11:1083.3%
- DL 2473to MSP 07:5589.5%
- DL 2510to MSP 06:0093.1%
- DL 2411to MSY 07:3089.6%
- DL 2396to PBI 11:1071.4%
- DL 2410to PBI 19:5062.0%
- DL 2460to PBI 15:0563.7%
- DL 2536to PBI 07:0089.7%
- DL 379to RSW 07:1583.8%
- DL 2412to SRQ 07:0587.9%
- DL 2195to TPA 10:5076.4%
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 26 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am5,849 flights88.5%
- 8am–11am4,717 flights80.5%
- 11am–2pm5,226 flights75.6%
- 2pm–5pm6,477 flights67.3%
- 5pm–8pm5,259 flights63.3%
- 8pm–5am2,003 flights62.3%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 62.3% on time, against 88.5% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 6,477 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 60.9% on time, against 84.4% in September. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 2,747 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 39%Carrier
- 32%National Airspace System
- 28%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 39%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 219,000 of the 567,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 566,973 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.28%, 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.
11.1% 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.
29,531 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 4.28% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; 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. 28,160 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at LGA
How often is Delta Air Lines at LGA 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 26.0% of the 29,531 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines at LGA?
Republic Airways leads at 74.2% on time across 56,427 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 57.3%, a gap of 17 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 Delta Air Lines at LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 62.3%, 26 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 Delta Air Lines at LGA?
December is the weakest month at 60.9% on time, compared with 84.4% in September. Across the year that is 24 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
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.