Carrier performance at one airport
DL→LGA
Delta Air Lines at LaGuardia
- Departures
- 29,677
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #2 of 9
Delta Air Lines at New York carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.8% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% 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 29,677 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 56,419 at 74.4% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs about a point ahead of the 72.6% 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
73.9%
28,437 completed departures
Avg delay
79 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
3.80%
At LGA, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at LGA
These figures cover 30,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.3% 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 74.4% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 60.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 2,409 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 56,419 | 74.4% | 69 min | 5.62% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 29,677 | 73.9% | 79 min | 3.80% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 5,298 | 72.9% | 84 min | 6.02% | C− |
| United Airlines | 9,051 | 71.8% | 85 min | 2.74% | C |
| American Airlines | 16,663 | 70.7% | 93 min | 4.07% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines | 11,705 | 69.8% | 71 min | 3.46% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,043 | 69.3% | 101 min | 5.18% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 4,482 | 65.7% | 82 min | 3.57% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 2,409 | 60.6% | 111 min | 5.60% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 6.0% 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 | 4,934 | 78.7% | 74 min | 3.02% | B− |
| LGA to ORD · Chicago | 2,289 | 67.9% | 94 min | 4.28% | C− |
| LGA to MCO · Orlando | 2,174 | 70.5% | 71 min | 4.42% | C− |
| LGA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,006 | 70.4% | 76 min | 4.49% | C− |
| LGA to DTW · Detroit | 1,979 | 80.1% | 84 min | 3.39% | B− |
| LGA to MIA · Miami | 1,915 | 68.6% | 74 min | 3.86% | C− |
| LGA to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,801 | 82.1% | 86 min | 2.44% | B |
| LGA to TPA · Tampa | 1,638 | 71.9% | 86 min | 3.24% | C− |
| LGA to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 1,600 | 70.1% | 68 min | 3.94% | C− |
| LGA to PBI · West Palm Beach | 1,553 | 70.1% | 74 min | 4.44% | C− |
| LGA to IAH · Houston | 1,338 | 73.7% | 89 min | 3.74% | C− |
| LGA to DEN · Denver | 1,038 | 71.6% | 78 min | 4.34% | C− |
| LGA to MCI · Kansas City | 978 | 69.8% | 89 min | 4.81% | C− |
| LGA to MSY · New Orleans | 720 | 78.6% | 83 min | 4.03% | B− |
| LGA to RSW · Fort Myers | 709 | 75.3% | 83 min | 4.23% | B− |
| LGA to BOS · Boston | 562 | 77.7% | 94 min | 3.91% | B− |
| LGA to SRQ · Sarasota | 541 | 81.2% | 75 min | 5.18% | B− |
| LGA to BNA · Nashville | 452 | 67.7% | 83 min | 4.87% | C− |
| LGA to CHS · Charleston | 404 | 67.7% | 72 min | 3.71% | C− |
| LGA to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 344 | 80.8% | 71 min | 4.65% | B− |
| LGA to MYR · Myrtle Beachthin sample | 253 | 79.9% | 62 min | 1.58% | B |
| LGA to CVG · Cincinnatithin sample | 183 | 69.5% | 82 min | 3.28% | C− |
| LGA to JAX · Jacksonvillethin sample | 112 | 72.4% | 76 min | 6.25% | C− |
| LGA to TVC · Traverse Citythin sample | 30 | 96.6% | 39 min | 3.33% | A− |
| LGA to SAV · Savannahthin sample | 30 | 56.7% | 54 min | 0.00% | D+ |
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 28 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am5,993 flights89.2%
- 8am–11am4,644 flights81.8%
- 11am–2pm5,412 flights76.2%
- 2pm–5pm6,454 flights66.0%
- 5pm–8pm5,275 flights61.2%
- 8pm–5am1,899 flights61.1%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 61.1% on time, against 89.2% 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.
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.
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. 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 229,000 of the 589,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 3.80%, against 1.80% 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. 11.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% 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.
29,677 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 3.80% 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.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at LGA
How often is Delta Air Lines at LGA delayed?
About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 26.1% of the 29,677 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% 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 74.4% on time across 56,419 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 60.6%, a gap of 14 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 89.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 61.1%, 28 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
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- LaGuardia (LGA) all carriers
- LGA to ATL route record78.7%
- LGA to ORD route record67.9%
- LGA to MCO route record70.5%
- LGA to DFW route record70.4%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.