Carrier performance at one airport
UA→LGA
United Airlines at LaGuardia
- Departures
- 9,051
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 3
- Rank here
- #4 of 9
United Airlines at New York sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.4%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 9,051 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 56,419 at 74.4% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, United Airlines runs about a point behind 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
71.8%
8,776 completed departures
Avg delay
85 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.74%
At LGA, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 9 carriers clearing the floor at LGA
These figures cover 9,051 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.0% 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 | 29,677 | 73.9% | 79 min | 3.80% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 5,298 | 72.9% | 84 min | 6.02% | C− |
| United Airlines (this page) | 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 United Airlines flies from LGA
United Airlines operates 3 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 ORD · Chicago | 4,658 | 67.0% | 87 min | 3.50% | C− |
| LGA to IAH · Houston | 2,378 | 76.3% | 90 min | 1.89% | B |
| LGA to DEN · Denver | 2,012 | 77.5% | 72 min | 1.99% | B |
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 37 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,552 flights89.8%
- 8am–11am1,703 flights84.8%
- 11am–2pm1,276 flights79.5%
- 2pm–5pm1,922 flights62.2%
- 5pm–8pm1,798 flights53.2%
- 8pm–5am800 flights60.8%
Scale runs 45% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 53.2% on time, against 89.8% 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
July is the worst month at 61.2% on time, 21 points below September, the best at 82.4%. 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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 41%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%National Airspace System
- 17%Carrier
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
41% 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 211,000 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.
Cancellations run at 2.74%, against 1.80% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 40 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. 12.0% 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.
The sample behind these figures is 9,051 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 82.4% on time and July 61.2%, a swing of 21 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else.
Common questions
United Airlines at LGA
How often is United Airlines at LGA delayed?
Roughly 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 28.2% of the 9,051 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on United Airlines 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 United Airlines at LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 53.2%, 37 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 July delays on United Airlines at LGA?
July is the weakest month at 61.2% on time, compared with 82.4% in September. Across the year that is 21 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, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.