Newark, NJ · departure reliability
EWR
Newark Liberty International
- Departures
- 123,067
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Carriers
- 10
- US rank
- #15 by volume
Newark
Newark Liberty International lands a B−, level with the national rate of 77.6%. Roughly one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 123,067 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 23,806 at 83.3% on time.
Republic Airways is the most reliable of the ten carriers covered here at 83.3% on time across 23,806 flights.
Key figures
On time
77.7%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
3.03%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Republic
83.3% on time here
These figures cover 123,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.1% 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of EWR
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 83.3% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 68.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,180 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 68,031 | 76.9% | 75 min | 2.01% | B |
| Republic Airways | 23,806 | 83.3% | 71 min | 4.62% | B− |
| Spirit Airlines | 7,472 | 69.4% | 82 min | 6.57% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 6,658 | 78.8% | 97 min | 3.42% | B− |
| American Airlines | 6,420 | 80.0% | 97 min | 3.46% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 5,172 | 74.2% | 81 min | 3.25% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 3,077 | 73.2% | 69 min | 2.27% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,180 | 68.5% | 92 min | 2.97% | C |
| Envoy Air | 658 | 73.3% | 89 min | 5.47% | C− |
| Allegiant Air | 584 | 79.9% | 81 min | 1.20% | B |
Spirit Airlines cancels 6.6% 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
Busiest routes out of EWR
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from EWR, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 77.7%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EWR to MCO · Orlando | 6,629 | 77.1% | 81 min | 2.88% | B |
| EWR to ATL · Atlanta | 6,290 | 77.6% | 84 min | 3.39% | B− |
| EWR to ORD · Chicago | 6,039 | 71.5% | 81 min | 3.33% | C− |
| EWR to LAX · Los Angeles | 4,927 | 71.9% | 82 min | 2.31% | C |
| EWR to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 4,755 | 75.7% | 75 min | 3.49% | B− |
| EWR to SFO · San Francisco | 4,403 | 69.8% | 89 min | 2.32% | C |
| EWR to MIA · Miami | 3,985 | 77.4% | 76 min | 2.63% | B |
| EWR to BOS · Boston | 3,906 | 71.4% | 76 min | 3.97% | C− |
| EWR to IAH · Houston | 3,798 | 79.6% | 75 min | 2.08% | B |
| EWR to DTW · Detroit | 3,782 | 79.2% | 86 min | 4.84% | B− |
| EWR to CLT · Charlotte | 3,753 | 80.2% | 95 min | 3.62% | B− |
| EWR to PBI · West Palm Beach | 3,611 | 77.1% | 69 min | 2.52% | B |
| EWR to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,571 | 79.2% | 85 min | 3.36% | B− |
| EWR to DEN · Denver | 3,368 | 78.3% | 73 min | 1.31% | B |
| EWR to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,992 | 80.1% | 76 min | 1.64% | B |
| EWR to TPA · Tampa | 2,656 | 80.8% | 71 min | 2.18% | B |
| EWR to PHX · Phoenix | 2,489 | 80.0% | 80 min | 1.93% | B |
| EWR to SEA · Seattle | 2,234 | 73.5% | 64 min | 2.01% | C |
| EWR to IND · Indianapolis | 2,221 | 81.6% | 84 min | 4.23% | B− |
| EWR to MSP · Minneapolis | 2,208 | 78.6% | 100 min | 3.89% | B− |
| EWR to CLE · Cleveland | 2,165 | 79.3% | 82 min | 2.73% | B |
| EWR to AUS · Austin | 2,107 | 78.2% | 78 min | 2.42% | B |
| EWR to SJU · San Juan | 2,101 | 70.7% | 82 min | 2.95% | C |
| EWR to CMH · Columbus | 2,045 | 83.6% | 87 min | 4.65% | B− |
| EWR to RSW · Fort Myers | 2,016 | 80.1% | 66 min | 1.84% | B |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave EWR
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am20,215 flights88.1%
- 8am–11am23,197 flights82.4%
- 11am–2pm17,940 flights80.4%
- 2pm–5pm22,835 flights74.4%
- 5pm–8pm22,828 flights70.2%
- 8pm–5am16,052 flights69.3%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.1% of the time, against 69.3% for the overnight window. That is 19 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 23,197 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When EWR runs late
EWR's year swings by 18 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
July is the worst month at 68.2% on time, 18 points below May, the best at 86.4%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 10,755 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.2%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why EWR gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 2.07 million reported delay minutes.
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%National Airspace System
- 27%Carrier
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
39% 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 2.07 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 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 2,069,016 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 88.1% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.03%, against 1.81% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 30 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. 9.1% 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.
123,067 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.
What to do with this
Flying out of EWR
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.03% 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. 119,030 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR delay questions
How often is Newark (EWR) 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 22.3% of the 123,067 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Newark (EWR)?
Republic Airways leads at 83.3% on time across 23,806 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 68.5%, 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 Newark (EWR)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.1% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 69.3%, 19 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 Newark (EWR)?
July is the weakest month at 68.2% on time, compared with 86.4% in May. Across the year that is 18 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
- EWR to MCO — Orlando77.1%
- EWR to ATL — Atlanta77.6%
- EWR to ORD — Chicago71.5%
- EWR to LAX — Los Angeles71.9%
- EWR to FLL — Fort Lauderdale75.7%
- EWR to SFO — San Francisco69.8%
- United Airlines on-time record76.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record83.3%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record69.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record78.8%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.