Airport month record
EWRDEC
Newark Liberty International in December 2025
- Departures
- 10,652
- Month
- December 2025
- National, same month
- 73.2%
- Carriers
- 10
Historical statistics for December 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s December. For today’s conditions at EWR, see live FAA status.
EWR in December sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 73.2%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 10,652 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 1,808 at 76.1% on time.
Republic Airways is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 76.1% on time across 1,808 flights.
Key figures
On time
70.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 10,343 completed departures
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.63%
Nationally in December: 1.55%
Whole year
77.7%
EWR across all twelve months
These figures cover 10,652 departures from Newark Liberty International in December 2025. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.
Against the year
December next to EWR's other months
Against EWR's own year, December ran 7 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 77.7%, which makes it number eleven of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, November ran 73.9% on time and January 78.8%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a better stretch.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 10,478 | 68.2% | 106 min | 6.82% | C− |
| August 2025 | 10,410 | 77.9% | 85 min | 1.20% | B |
| September 2025 | 9,945 | 82.7% | 81 min | 1.11% | B |
| October 2025 | 10,578 | 71.0% | 62 min | 1.01% | C |
| November 2025 | 10,403 | 73.9% | 79 min | 4.39% | C− |
| December 2025 (this page) | 10,652 | 70.5% | 75 min | 2.63% | C |
| January 2026 | 9,977 | 78.8% | 68 min | 6.37% | B− |
| February 2026 | 9,244 | 81.8% | 67 min | 7.88% | B− |
| March 2026 | 10,755 | 77.7% | 76 min | 2.32% | B |
| April 2026 | 10,358 | 85.0% | 62 min | 0.69% | A+ |
| May 2026 | 10,300 | 86.4% | 72 min | 0.93% | A+ |
| June 2026 | 9,967 | 78.6% | 87 min | 1.53% | B |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave EWR in December
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 17 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,786 flights79.1%
- 8am–11am1,992 flights70.9%
- 11am–2pm1,459 flights70.9%
- 2pm–5pm1,851 flights74.2%
- 5pm–8pm2,032 flights64.9%
- 8pm–5am1,532 flights62.1%
Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 62.1% on time, against 79.1% 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. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 2,032 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 49.6%. 33 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at EWR in December
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 76.1% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 58.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 458 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 5,996 | 72.2% | 71 min | 1.02% | C |
| Republic Airways | 1,808 | 76.1% | 68 min | 4.92% | B− |
| Spirit Airlines | 789 | 58.4% | 87 min | 6.97% | D− |
| Delta Air Lines | 541 | 71.7% | 98 min | 5.73% | C− |
| American Airlines | 530 | 73.1% | 97 min | 1.70% | C |
| JetBlue Airways | 458 | 58.0% | 70 min | 3.71% | D− |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 300 | 55.3% | 59 min | 2.00% | D |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 93 | 51.8% | 131 min | 7.53% | F− |
| Allegiant Airthin sample | 71 | 59.2% | 82 min | 0.00% | D+ |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 66 | 63.9% | 95 min | 7.58% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 7.0% 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
Busiest routes out of EWR in December
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EWR to MCO · Orlando | 607 | 70.1% | 78 min | 1.81% | C |
| EWR to ATL · Atlanta | 524 | 70.8% | 107 min | 3.44% | C− |
| EWR to ORD · Chicago | 511 | 67.9% | 82 min | 1.57% | C |
| EWR to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 488 | 65.8% | 76 min | 3.28% | C− |
| EWR to LAX · Los Angeles | 476 | 64.5% | 77 min | 1.68% | D |
| EWR to PBI · West Palm Beach | 395 | 67.9% | 71 min | 2.03% | C |
| EWR to MIA · Miami | 394 | 73.9% | 76 min | 2.79% | C |
| EWR to SFO · San Francisco | 368 | 58.0% | 96 min | 1.09% | D |
| EWR to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 333 | 77.6% | 74 min | 0.90% | B+ |
| EWR to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 317 | 70.2% | 117 min | 2.21% | C |
| EWR to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 307 | 65.4% | 77 min | 5.86% | C− |
| EWR to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample | 297 | 80.1% | 81 min | 1.68% | B |
| EWR to DEN · Denverthin sample | 279 | 71.6% | 77 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| EWR to BOS · Bostonthin sample | 277 | 76.9% | 77 min | 1.44% | B |
| EWR to PHX · Phoenixthin sample | 235 | 76.7% | 55 min | 1.28% | B |
| EWR to TPA · Tampathin sample | 232 | 73.6% | 81 min | 2.16% | C |
| EWR to AUS · Austinthin sample | 215 | 69.4% | 66 min | 1.86% | C |
| EWR to IND · Indianapolisthin sample | 207 | 71.1% | 80 min | 4.83% | C− |
| EWR to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample | 206 | 80.2% | 56 min | 1.94% | B |
| EWR to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 201 | 78.0% | 66 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| EWR to SJU · San Juanthin sample | 199 | 63.9% | 65 min | 4.02% | D− |
| EWR to CLE · Clevelandthin sample | 192 | 80.0% | 70 min | 3.65% | B− |
| EWR to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 179 | 65.9% | 63 min | 3.35% | C− |
| EWR to SEA · Seattlethin sample | 178 | 45.4% | 49 min | 1.69% | F |
| EWR to CMH · Columbusthin sample | 177 | 79.0% | 81 min | 5.65% | B− |
Delay causes
What held EWR up in December
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 230,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%National Airspace System
- 25%Carrier
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% 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 230,000 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. The split is drawn from 229,943 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.63%, against 1.55% nationally. That is about 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. 11.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 10.0% 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.
What to do with this
Flying from EWR in December
For a December trip through EWR: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 79.1% on time, and with 11.7% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in May would.
Related
Where to go next
- Newark Liberty International (EWR), the whole year
- EWR in July68.2%
- EWR in August77.9%
- EWR in September82.7%
- EWR in October71.0%
- EWR in November73.9%
- EWR in January78.8%
- EWR in February81.8%
- EWR in March77.7%
- EWR in April85.0%
- EWR in May86.4%
- EWR in June78.6%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.