Airport month record
LGADEC
LaGuardia in December 2025
- Departures
- 11,361
- Month
- December 2025
- National, same month
- 73.2%
- Carriers
- 9
Historical statistics for December 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s December. For today’s conditions at LGA, see live FAA status.
LGA in December carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.8% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.6% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, a little over half of flights arrive on time, worth a D− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 11,361 flights, of which United Airlines flew 765 at 67.5% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 67.5% on time across 765 flights.
Key figures
On time
62.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 10,801 completed departures
Avg delay
74 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.81%
Nationally in December: 1.55%
Whole year
73.4%
LGA across all twelve months
These figures cover 11,361 departures from LaGuardia 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 LGA's other months
Against LGA's own year, December ran 11 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 73.4%, which makes it the worst of the twelve months in the data. Either side of it, November ran 67.9% on time and January 78.9%, 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 | 11,696 | 68.0% | 106 min | 8.76% | C− |
| August 2025 | 11,582 | 81.0% | 81 min | 1.79% | B |
| September 2025 | 11,388 | 82.4% | 77 min | 0.89% | B+ |
| October 2025 | 12,002 | 66.8% | 68 min | 2.58% | C |
| November 2025 | 11,577 | 67.9% | 78 min | 3.63% | C− |
| December 2025 (this page) | 11,361 | 62.2% | 74 min | 4.81% | D− |
| January 2026 | 11,099 | 78.9% | 66 min | 7.77% | B− |
| February 2026 | 10,307 | 78.5% | 66 min | 8.22% | B− |
| March 2026 | 11,660 | 67.9% | 77 min | 9.73% | C− |
| April 2026 | 11,443 | 76.5% | 69 min | 0.95% | B+ |
| May 2026 | 11,375 | 75.4% | 68 min | 1.83% | B |
| June 2026 | 10,877 | 75.3% | 81 min | 4.16% | B− |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave LGA in December
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 28 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,617 flights79.0%
- 8am–11am2,304 flights68.3%
- 11am–2pm1,909 flights64.1%
- 2pm–5pm2,304 flights56.1%
- 5pm–8pm1,919 flights51.4%
- 8pm–5am1,308 flights54.6%
Scale runs 45% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 51.4% on time, against 79.0% 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 2,304 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 80.9% on time and Friday the weakest at 50.8%. 30 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at LGA in December
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 67.5% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 50.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 382 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 4,335 | 63.8% | 68 min | 4.68% | D− |
| Delta Air Lines | 2,583 | 60.9% | 75 min | 7.43% | D− |
| American Airlines | 1,409 | 63.6% | 79 min | 2.20% | D |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,026 | 59.6% | 70 min | 2.73% | D |
| United Airlines | 765 | 67.5% | 86 min | 2.48% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 554 | 61.3% | 79 min | 6.32% | D− |
| JetBlue Airways | 382 | 50.5% | 64 min | 4.19% | F− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 218 | 55.3% | 103 min | 8.72% | D− |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 89 | 58.1% | 113 min | 3.37% | D− |
Delta Air Lines cancels 7.4% 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 LGA in December
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LGA to ORD · Chicago | 910 | 59.1% | 85 min | 4.51% | D− |
| LGA to ATL · Atlanta | 752 | 67.6% | 83 min | 5.85% | C− |
| LGA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 541 | 61.6% | 67 min | 4.62% | D− |
| LGA to MIA · Miami | 532 | 62.0% | 71 min | 4.14% | D− |
| LGA to BOS · Boston | 504 | 68.9% | 68 min | 5.56% | C− |
| LGA to MCO · Orlando | 466 | 59.5% | 75 min | 5.36% | D− |
| LGA to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 455 | 57.3% | 72 min | 5.71% | D− |
| LGA to DEN · Denver | 391 | 61.8% | 64 min | 4.35% | D− |
| LGA to CLT · Charlotte | 384 | 66.6% | 73 min | 3.39% | C− |
| LGA to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 355 | 64.2% | 76 min | 5.63% | D− |
| LGA to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 350 | 70.7% | 110 min | 4.29% | C− |
| LGA to DCA · Washingtonthin sample | 342 | 55.2% | 68 min | 4.09% | D− |
| LGA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 325 | 59.1% | 66 min | 5.23% | D− |
| LGA to PBI · West Palm Beachthin sample | 321 | 59.5% | 71 min | 3.74% | D− |
| LGA to TPA · Tampathin sample | 281 | 57.4% | 77 min | 3.91% | D− |
| LGA to CMH · Columbusthin sample | 260 | 68.7% | 72 min | 5.00% | C− |
| LGA to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 241 | 57.3% | 75 min | 5.81% | D− |
| LGA to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 229 | 63.2% | 77 min | 3.93% | D− |
| LGA to PIT · Pittsburghthin sample | 221 | 66.7% | 81 min | 3.62% | C− |
| LGA to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 198 | 56.8% | 64 min | 2.02% | D |
| LGA to IND · Indianapolisthin sample | 195 | 67.0% | 77 min | 5.13% | C− |
| LGA to RIC · Richmondthin sample | 183 | 60.2% | 65 min | 3.83% | D− |
| LGA to GSO · Greensborothin sample | 173 | 70.9% | 61 min | 4.62% | C− |
| LGA to CLE · Clevelandthin sample | 171 | 59.9% | 65 min | 5.26% | D− |
| LGA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 150 | 71.7% | 91 min | 3.33% | C− |
Delay causes
What held LGA up in December
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 300,000 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.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%National Airspace System
- 25%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% 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 300,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 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 300,183 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.81%, against 1.55% nationally. That is about one flight in twenty 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. 15.3% 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 LGA in December
For a December trip through LGA: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 79.0% on time, and with 15.3% of arrivals an hour or more late, a connection here deserves more slack than the same trip in September would.
Related
Where to go next
- LaGuardia (LGA), the whole year
- LGA in July68.0%
- LGA in August81.0%
- LGA in September82.4%
- LGA in October66.8%
- LGA in November67.9%
- LGA in January78.9%
- LGA in February78.5%
- LGA in March67.9%
- LGA in April76.5%
- LGA in May75.4%
- LGA in June75.3%
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.