New York, NY · departure reliability
JFK
John F. Kennedy International
- Departures
- 102,713
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 6
- US rank
- #22 by volume
New York
John F. Kennedy International carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.0% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 102,713 flights, of which American Airlines flew 15,348 at 77.8% on time.
American Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 77.8% on time across 15,348 flights.
Key figures
On time
74.3%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
3.98%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
77.8% on time here
These figures cover 103,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of JFK
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 77.8% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 69.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,971 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airways | 35,630 | 70.7% | 75 min | 4.90% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 30,645 | 76.5% | 71 min | 3.01% | B− |
| American Airlines | 15,348 | 77.8% | 97 min | 2.93% | B |
| Republic Airways | 14,963 | 76.5% | 76 min | 5.38% | B− |
| Alaska Airlines | 4,032 | 71.5% | 68 min | 2.80% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,971 | 69.5% | 91 min | 2.33% | C |
Republic Airways 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 JFK
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from JFK, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 74.3%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JFK to LAX · Los Angeles | 10,285 | 75.4% | 78 min | 2.78% | B |
| JFK to SFO · San Francisco | 6,800 | 71.4% | 69 min | 2.57% | C |
| JFK to BOS · Boston | 5,615 | 72.1% | 79 min | 5.02% | C− |
| JFK to MCO · Orlando | 4,804 | 73.7% | 79 min | 3.81% | C− |
| JFK to MIA · Miami | 4,526 | 76.8% | 97 min | 3.12% | B− |
| JFK to ATL · Atlanta | 4,227 | 75.5% | 83 min | 2.77% | B |
| JFK to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 3,907 | 71.9% | 70 min | 4.76% | C− |
| JFK to LAS · Las Vegas | 3,721 | 78.1% | 66 min | 2.82% | B |
| JFK to SJU · San Juan | 3,554 | 70.2% | 78 min | 3.57% | C− |
| JFK to PHX · Phoenix | 3,097 | 76.2% | 78 min | 3.26% | B− |
| JFK to SEA · Seattle | 2,906 | 69.5% | 65 min | 3.44% | C− |
| JFK to DCA · Washington | 2,518 | 66.2% | 72 min | 6.39% | C− |
| JFK to SAN · San Diego | 2,417 | 78.0% | 60 min | 2.85% | B |
| JFK to RDU · Raleigh | 2,335 | 72.4% | 75 min | 6.51% | C− |
| JFK to TPA · Tampa | 2,310 | 76.1% | 76 min | 4.16% | B− |
| JFK to AUS · Austin | 2,227 | 80.8% | 96 min | 3.46% | B− |
| JFK to ORD · Chicago | 2,136 | 70.4% | 87 min | 6.04% | C− |
| JFK to PBI · West Palm Beach | 2,050 | 74.8% | 71 min | 4.59% | C− |
| JFK to CLT · Charlotte | 1,998 | 80.3% | 99 min | 3.00% | B |
| JFK to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,953 | 75.9% | 91 min | 3.33% | B− |
| JFK to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,929 | 76.4% | 65 min | 2.44% | B |
| JFK to PIT · Pittsburgh | 1,764 | 73.7% | 80 min | 6.12% | C− |
| JFK to CMH · Columbus | 1,569 | 77.7% | 81 min | 5.42% | B− |
| JFK to DEN · Denver | 1,531 | 71.4% | 69 min | 3.40% | C− |
| JFK to BNA · Nashville | 1,412 | 74.4% | 71 min | 5.17% | C− |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave JFK
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 20 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am15,802 flights85.0%
- 8am–11am19,323 flights79.6%
- 11am–2pm16,363 flights78.7%
- 2pm–5pm17,997 flights70.8%
- 5pm–8pm18,745 flights66.9%
- 8pm–5am14,483 flights64.6%
Scale runs 55% to 90%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.6% on time, against 85.0% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 19,323 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter JFK departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from New York (JFK), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 85.0% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 64.6%, a wide gap of 20.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am85.0%
- 8–11am79.6%
- 11am–2pm78.7%
- 2–5pm70.8%
- 5–8pm66.9%
- 8pm–5am64.6%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When JFK runs late
JFK'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.
August is the worst month at 64.6% on time, 18 points below May, the best at 82.1%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 9,185 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 78.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.3%, a spread of 12 points.
JFK month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into JFK
34 European airports send scheduled passenger flights to JFK, 62,607 flights a year in both directions by the DOT's international count. The DOT keeps no delay record for international flights; the UK routes carry the CAA's departure punctuality, and every route sets its departure airport's EUROCONTROL figures beside JFK's own record above.
- LHR to JFK · London14,572 flights
- CDG to JFK · Paris7,055 flights
- FCO to JFK · Rome3,990 flights
- FRA to JFK · Frankfurt3,168 flights
- MAD to JFK · Madrid3,154 flights
- AMS to JFK · Amsterdam3,000 flights
- DUB to JFK · Dublin2,795 flights
- MXP to JFK · Milan2,569 flights
- ZRH to JFK · Zurich2,124 flights
- BCN to JFK · Barcelona2,005 flights
- KEF to JFK · Reykjavík1,713 flights
- ATH to JFK · Athens1,443 flights
Delay causes
Why JFK 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 1.94 million reported delay minutes.
- 36%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 28%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
36% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 1.94 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. The split is drawn from 1,936,016 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 85.0% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.98%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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.
10.4% 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.
102,713 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 JFK
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.98% 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. 98,339 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
JFK delay questions
How often is New York (JFK) 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 25.7% of the 102,713 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 New York (JFK)?
American Airlines leads at 77.8% on time across 15,348 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 69.5%, a gap of 8 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 New York (JFK)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 85.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 64.6%, 20 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 New York (JFK)?
August is the weakest month at 64.6% on time, compared with 82.1% 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
- JFK to LAX — Los Angeles75.4%
- JFK to SFO — San Francisco71.4%
- JFK to BOS — Boston72.1%
- JFK to MCO — Orlando73.7%
- JFK to MIA — Miami76.8%
- JFK to ATL — Atlanta75.5%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record70.7%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record76.5%
- American Airlines on-time record77.8%
- Republic Airways on-time record76.5%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
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Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.