Airport month record

JFKSEP

John F. Kennedy International in September 2025

Departures: 8,567
Month: September 2025
National, same month: 83.4%
Carriers: 7

Historical statistics for September 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s September. For today’s conditions at JFK, see live FAA status.

JFK in September lands a B+, 2 points worse than the national rate of 83.4%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 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 8,567 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 2,560 at 84.5% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 84.5% on time across 2,560 flights.

On time

81.8%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 8,485 completed departures

Avg delay

74 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.74%

Nationally in September: 0.51%

Whole year

75.7%

JFK across all twelve months

These figures cover 8,567 departures from John F. Kennedy International in September 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

September next to JFK's other months

Against JFK's own year, September ran 6 points better than the twelve-month rate of 75.7%, which makes it number two of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for JFK in September, at 0.74% against 3.06% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 79.0% on time and October 74.2%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

JFK month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	9,262	67.8%	91 min	6.23%	C−
August 2025	9,110	79.0%	75 min	0.92%	B+
September 2025 (this page)	8,567	81.8%	74 min	0.74%	B+
October 2025	8,928	74.2%	69 min	1.46%	C
November 2025	8,626	75.8%	72 min	2.83%	B
December 2025	8,856	65.6%	76 min	4.02%	C−
January 2026	8,022	73.6%	69 min	7.12%	C−
February 2026	7,458	75.2%	74 min	8.76%	B−
March 2026	8,392	76.4%	75 min	2.10%	B
April 2026	8,254	81.6%	59 min	0.24%	B+
May 2026	8,535	82.1%	73 min	1.08%	B
June 2026	8,750	75.0%	78 min	2.02%	B

Departure window

The best time of day to leave JFK in September

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 5 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,353 flights90.2%
8am–11am1,504 flights90.4%
11am–2pm1,507 flights85.6%
2pm–5pm1,416 flights77.8%
5pm–8pm1,532 flights71.9%
8pm–5am1,255 flights74.1%

Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 90.4% of the time, against 71.9% for the evening 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 1,532 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 88.3% on time and Thursday the weakest at 66.5%. 22 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at JFK in September

The four carriers here are closely matched: 5 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.

Carriers at JFK in September 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
JetBlue Airways	2,844	79.3%	65 min	0.63%	B+
Delta Air Lines	2,560	84.5%	74 min	0.31%	B+
Republic Airways	1,412	80.9%	74 min	1.63%	B
American Airlines	1,130	83.8%	102 min	0.62%	B+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	300	78.8%	62 min	2.00%	B
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	290	81.0%	76 min	0.00%	B+
Hawaiian Airlinesthin sample	31	80.0%	187 min	3.23%	B−

No carrier stands out. Delta tops the table at 84.5%, 5 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of JFK in September

Routes from JFK in September 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
JFK to LAX · Los Angeles	856	83.2%	93 min	0.58%	B+
JFK to SFO · San Francisco	579	85.8%	71 min	0.35%	A+
JFK to BOS · Boston	547	66.2%	78 min	2.01%	C
JFK to ATL · Atlanta	388	84.5%	79 min	0.26%	B+
JFK to MIA · Miamithin sample	359	79.8%	79 min	0.28%	B+
JFK to MCO · Orlandothin sample	349	83.0%	67 min	0.29%	B+
JFK to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	337	81.8%	53 min	0.00%	B+
JFK to SEA · Seattlethin sample	270	83.9%	70 min	0.74%	B+
JFK to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	262	82.9%	73 min	1.53%	B
JFK to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	259	79.9%	57 min	0.39%	B+
JFK to SJU · San Juanthin sample	245	72.7%	52 min	0.00%	C+
JFK to CLT · Charlottethin sample	206	84.3%	144 min	0.97%	B+
JFK to SAN · San Diegothin sample	206	76.8%	51 min	2.43%	B
JFK to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	197	79.4%	90 min	0.51%	B+
JFK to RDU · Raleighthin sample	197	81.4%	67 min	1.52%	B
JFK to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	186	81.3%	113 min	1.61%	B
JFK to TPA · Tampathin sample	182	87.4%	50 min	0.00%	A+
JFK to PIT · Pittsburghthin sample	178	82.1%	86 min	2.81%	B
JFK to AUS · Austinthin sample	174	85.6%	91 min	0.00%	A+
JFK to ORD · Chicagothin sample	165	84.0%	81 min	1.21%	B
JFK to CMH · Columbusthin sample	150	81.8%	60 min	1.33%	B
JFK to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	150	84.7%	60 min	0.00%	B+
JFK to PBI · West Palm Beachthin sample	146	77.2%	49 min	0.68%	B+
JFK to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	144	81.8%	56 min	0.69%	B+
JFK to DTW · Detroitthin sample	137	86.9%	49 min	0.00%	A+

Delay causes

What held JFK up in September

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 114,000 reported delay minutes.

National Airspace System
39%
Carrier
31%
Late-arriving aircraft
27%
Extreme weather
2%
Security
0%

39% 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 45,000 minutes out of 114,000, against a national NAS share of 23%. The split is drawn from 114,086 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.74%, below the national 0.51% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.

7.1% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 5.4%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from JFK in September

For a September trip through JFK: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 81.8% on time with 0.74% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

John F. Kennedy International (JFK), the whole year
JFK in July67.8%
JFK in August79.0%
JFK in October74.2%
JFK in November75.8%
JFK in December65.6%
JFK in January73.6%
JFK in February75.2%
JFK in March76.4%
JFK in April81.6%
JFK in May82.1%
JFK in June75.0%

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.

Key figures