Carrier performance at one airport

UA→EWR

United Airlines at Newark Liberty International

Departures: 68,308
Period: September 2025 to August 2026
Routes: 25
Rank here: #5 of 10

United Airlines at Newark lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 68,308 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 24,470 at 83.5% on time.

Measured against the airport rather than the country, United Airlines runs about a point behind the 77.5% weighted average across all carriers at EWR. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.

On time

76.3%

66,552 completed departures

Avg delay

77 min

Across delayed flights only

Cancelled

2.30%

At EWR, this carrier only

Rank here

Of 10 carriers clearing the floor at EWR

These figures cover 68,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.

Against the competition

Every carrier at EWR, ranked

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 83.5% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 68.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 5,960 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance of all carriers departing EWR
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Republic Airways	24,470	83.5%	71 min	5.49%	B−
Allegiant Air	547	80.1%	84 min	1.65%	B
American Airlines	6,626	79.7%	105 min	3.68%	B−
Delta Air Lines	6,613	79.0%	101 min	3.92%	B−
United Airlines (this page)	68,308	76.3%	77 min	2.30%	B
JetBlue Airways	4,976	73.9%	77 min	3.82%	C−
Alaska Airlines	2,985	73.7%	70 min	2.45%	C
Envoy Air	533	72.2%	84 min	6.19%	C−
Frontier Airlines	1,240	70.9%	112 min	3.79%	C−
Spirit Airlines	5,960	68.1%	80 min	7.27%	C−

Spirit 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 United Airlines flies from EWR

United Airlines operates 25 routes out of EWR 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.

United Airlines routes from EWR
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
EWR to ORD · Chicago	4,415	70.3%	80 min	2.83%	C
EWR to MCO · Orlando	4,019	79.8%	77 min	2.21%	B
EWR to SFO · San Francisco	3,863	66.7%	90 min	2.43%	C
EWR to LAX · Los Angeles	3,527	71.0%	84 min	1.93%	C
EWR to IAH · Houston	3,510	80.8%	77 min	1.60%	B
EWR to DEN · Denver	3,349	77.6%	84 min	1.46%	B
EWR to FLL · Fort Lauderdale	2,723	78.2%	71 min	2.53%	B
EWR to BOS · Boston	2,695	70.9%	77 min	3.19%	C−
EWR to PBI · West Palm Beach	2,616	79.4%	67 min	2.10%	B
EWR to LAS · Las Vegas	2,459	80.5%	72 min	1.63%	B
EWR to TPA · Tampa	2,333	81.0%	71 min	2.19%	B
EWR to MIA · Miami	2,238	77.1%	72 min	2.50%	B
EWR to ATL · Atlanta	2,024	76.0%	84 min	2.67%	B
EWR to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	1,805	79.5%	74 min	2.66%	B
EWR to AUS · Austin	1,735	79.8%	76 min	2.48%	B
EWR to RSW · Fort Myers	1,721	78.5%	70 min	2.03%	B
EWR to RDU · Raleigh	1,541	74.2%	78 min	2.66%	C
EWR to IAD · Washington	1,532	74.8%	72 min	2.81%	C
EWR to PHX · Phoenix	1,483	80.3%	73 min	2.23%	B
EWR to BNA · Nashville	1,477	73.2%	72 min	2.84%	C
EWR to CLE · Cleveland	1,445	76.4%	90 min	3.04%	B−
EWR to SAN · San Diego	1,229	80.1%	63 min	1.95%	B
EWR to JAX · Jacksonville	1,191	80.4%	86 min	2.02%	B
EWR to SJU · San Juan	1,113	69.7%	80 min	2.16%	C
EWR to SNA · Santa Ana	1,091	84.7%	61 min	2.02%	B

Flight by flight

United Airlines flight numbers from EWR

69 United Airlines flight numbers leaving EWR flew their main route often enough to have a record of their own. Grouped by destination.

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 21 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier.

5am–8am11,505 flights88.6%
8am–11am12,359 flights79.4%
11am–2pm9,829 flights79.3%
2pm–5pm13,011 flights72.7%
5pm–8pm12,483 flights69.4%
8pm–5am9,121 flights67.5%

Scale runs 60% to 95%.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.6% of the time, against 67.5% for the overnight window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 13,011 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

Seasonal pattern

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.April best, August worst

August is the worst month at 68.1% on time, 17 points below April, the best at 84.9%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. December was the busiest month here, with 5,996 flights.

Delay causes

What holds this operation up

Late-arriving aircraft
36%
National Airspace System
30%
Carrier
28%
Extreme weather
6%
Security
0%

36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 1.21 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 1,214,147 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 2.30% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.27%.

9.5% 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.

68,308 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 calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 84.9% on time and August 68.1%, a swing of 17 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 66,552 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

United Airlines at EWR

How often is United Airlines at EWR 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 23.7% of the 68,308 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 United Airlines at EWR?

Republic Airways leads at 83.5% on time across 24,470 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 68.1%, 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 United Airlines at EWR?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.6% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 67.5%, 21 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 August delays on United Airlines at EWR?

August is the weakest month at 68.1% on time, compared with 84.9% in April. Across the year that is 17 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated 22 October 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures