Newark, NJ · departure reliability
EWR
Newark Liberty International
- Departures
- 365,934
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Carriers
- 19
- US rank
- #12 by volume
Newark
Newark Liberty International sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 75.9%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 365,934 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 9,693 at 81.5% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the nineteen carriers covered here at 81.5% on time across 9,693 flights.
Key figures
On time
70.7%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
56 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.13%
National rate is 2.23%
Best carrier
Delta
81.5% on time here
These figures cover 366,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.6% 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. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 81.5% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 64.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 24,810 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 69,448 | 68.7% | 57 min | 1.35% | C |
| Allegiant Air | 59,062 | 66.9% | 62 min | 2.66% | C |
| Endeavor Air | 45,231 | 74.3% | 54 min | 2.45% | C |
| Republic Airways | 28,255 | 69.6% | 59 min | 2.96% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 24,810 | 64.0% | 62 min | 2.06% | D |
| Hawaiian Airlines | 21,662 | 80.7% | 42 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| PSA Airlines | 19,194 | 67.9% | 52 min | 3.11% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 15,330 | 78.9% | 53 min | 1.12% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 13,786 | 72.4% | 59 min | 2.26% | C |
| SkyWest Airlines | 12,547 | 68.0% | 62 min | 2.52% | C |
| Sun Country Airlines | 11,271 | 76.0% | 53 min | 1.50% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 9,693 | 81.5% | 48 min | 0.99% | B+ |
| Air Wisconsin | 9,417 | 68.1% | 58 min | 2.47% | C |
| Horizon Air | 9,143 | 73.9% | 54 min | 2.21% | C |
| Envoy Air | 5,606 | 66.8% | 62 min | 3.60% | C− |
| American Airlines | 3,734 | 70.4% | 58 min | 2.84% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 3,154 | 65.3% | 57 min | 3.49% | C− |
| Mesa Airlines | 2,926 | 69.4% | 58 min | 5.40% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,305 | 67.6% | 59 min | 3.14% | C− |
Mesa Airlines cancels 5.4% 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 70.7%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EWR to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 111,854 | 67.1% | 52 min | 2.02% | C |
| EWR to STL · St. Louis | 16,691 | 76.8% | 50 min | 2.03% | B |
| EWR to CLT · Charlotte | 16,349 | 73.6% | 54 min | 4.04% | C− |
| EWR to MSP · Minneapolis | 13,054 | 63.1% | 60 min | 2.42% | D |
| EWR to SLC · Salt Lake City | 12,748 | 80.4% | 44 min | 0.48% | B+ |
| EWR to PHX · Phoenix | 12,289 | 73.4% | 54 min | 1.59% | C |
| EWR to ATL · Atlanta | 11,263 | 68.7% | 58 min | 2.18% | C |
| EWR to TPA · Tampa | 10,775 | 74.7% | 57 min | 1.31% | C |
| EWR to BOS · Boston | 10,763 | 69.1% | 55 min | 4.47% | C− |
| EWR to AUS · Austin | 8,925 | 73.5% | 55 min | 1.77% | C |
| EWR to ORD · Chicago | 8,746 | 70.5% | 58 min | 3.24% | C− |
| EWR to JFK · New York | 7,249 | 69.5% | 55 min | 2.21% | C |
| EWR to IAD · Washington | 7,170 | 71.7% | 58 min | 2.54% | C |
| EWR to SMF · Sacramento | 6,999 | 80.2% | 51 min | 1.14% | B |
| EWR to BNA · Nashville | 6,507 | 64.4% | 61 min | 0.77% | D+ |
| EWR to MDW · Chicago | 6,425 | 69.1% | 61 min | 1.68% | C |
| EWR to IAH · Houston | 6,368 | 75.9% | 48 min | 0.86% | B+ |
| EWR to SFO · San Francisco | 5,883 | 64.3% | 66 min | 1.02% | D |
| EWR to MCI · Kansas City | 5,703 | 80.2% | 48 min | 1.14% | B |
| EWR to RDU · Raleigh | 5,470 | 65.7% | 60 min | 1.55% | C |
| EWR to DCA · Washington | 4,820 | 66.0% | 65 min | 3.84% | C− |
| EWR to PDX · Portland | 4,702 | 70.6% | 54 min | 3.64% | C− |
| EWR to SEA · Seattle | 4,688 | 67.8% | 62 min | 3.43% | C− |
| EWR to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 4,666 | 68.4% | 61 min | 2.34% | C |
| EWR to SJC · San Jose | 4,663 | 71.2% | 59 min | 2.12% | C |
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 14 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am56,722 flights77.4%
- 8am–11am75,015 flights73.5%
- 11am–2pm67,701 flights69.7%
- 2pm–5pm64,030 flights68.2%
- 5pm–8pm65,874 flights63.2%
- 8pm–5am36,591 flights70.0%
Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 63.2% on time, against 77.4% 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
When EWR runs late
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 365,934 flights. The strip shows how much of EWR's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
December is the weak month at 65.7% on time, against 74.4% 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.
The day of the week is close to irrelevant here: 4 points separates the best day from the worst. Weekly demand peaks are not what drives the delays on this operation.
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 5.85 million reported delay minutes.
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%National Airspace System
- 19%Carrier
- 8%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
37% 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 5.85 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 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.
36% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 2.11 million minutes out of 5.85 million, against a national NAS share of 30%.
Cancellations sit at 2.13% against a national 2.23%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.24%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 10.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.6% 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.
365,934 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: avoid the 5pm–8pm departure. It runs 63.2% on time against 77.4% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 14 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close.
Common questions
EWR delay questions
How often is Newark (EWR) delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 29.3% of the 365,934 flights in this analysis, against 24.1% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Newark (EWR)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 81.5% on time across 9,693 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 64.0%, a gap of 18 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 77.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 63.2%, 14 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 Newark (EWR)?
December is the weakest month at 65.7% on time, compared with 74.4% in September. Across the year that is 9 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 DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth67.1%
- EWR to STL — St. Louis76.8%
- EWR to CLT — Charlotte73.6%
- EWR to MSP — Minneapolis63.1%
- EWR to SLC — Salt Lake City80.4%
- EWR to PHX — Phoenix73.4%
- United Airlines on-time record68.7%
- Allegiant Air on-time record66.9%
- Endeavor Air on-time record74.3%
- Republic Airways on-time record69.6%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 11.3 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.