Airport month record
LGAMAR
LaGuardia in March 2026
- Departures
- 11,660
- Month
- March 2026
- National, same month
- 75.7%
- Carriers
- 9
Historical statistics for March 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s March. For today’s conditions at LGA, see live FAA status.
LGA in March carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 9.7% of scheduled flights never operate, against 2.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about two flights in three 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 11,660 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 2,357 at 75.8% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 75.8% on time across 2,357 flights.
Key figures
On time
67.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 10,484 completed departures
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
9.73%
Nationally in March: 2.90%
Whole year
73.4%
LGA across all twelve months
These figures cover 11,660 departures from LaGuardia in March 2026. 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
March next to LGA's other months
Against LGA's own year, March ran 6 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 73.4%, which makes it number ten of twelve months, best first. Cancellations are where March stands out: 9.73% of scheduled departures were called off, 2.1 times the airport's rate across the year. Either side of it, February ran 78.5% on time and April 76.5%, 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 | 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 (this page) | 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 March
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 34 points, against 23 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am1,654 flights84.4%
- 8am–11am2,303 flights80.2%
- 11am–2pm1,881 flights73.8%
- 2pm–5pm2,401 flights62.3%
- 5pm–8pm2,075 flights53.2%
- 8pm–5am1,346 flights50.0%
Scale runs 40% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 50.0% on time, against 84.4% 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. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 2,401 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 77.3% on time and Thursday the weakest at 62.1%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at LGA in March
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 75.8% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 52.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 516 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 5,130 | 67.1% | 66 min | 11.48% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 2,357 | 75.8% | 72 min | 8.78% | B− |
| American Airlines | 1,434 | 68.8% | 95 min | 5.02% | C− |
| Southwest Airlines | 974 | 65.6% | 71 min | 8.21% | C− |
| United Airlines | 601 | 66.8% | 101 min | 6.66% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 516 | 52.6% | 97 min | 16.47% | F− |
| JetBlue Airways | 397 | 65.6% | 89 min | 7.30% | C− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 207 | 48.1% | 131 min | 10.63% | F− |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 44 | 48.5% | 67 min | 25.00% | F− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 16.5% 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 March
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LGA to ORD · Chicago | 996 | 56.6% | 87 min | 11.85% | D− |
| LGA to ATL · Atlanta | 675 | 76.0% | 94 min | 7.11% | B− |
| LGA to BOS · Boston | 615 | 74.5% | 63 min | 12.03% | C− |
| LGA to MIA · Miami | 575 | 64.1% | 103 min | 8.52% | D− |
| LGA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 569 | 72.9% | 93 min | 7.21% | C− |
| LGA to MCO · Orlando | 523 | 65.0% | 79 min | 9.18% | C− |
| LGA to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 496 | 61.6% | 80 min | 10.48% | D− |
| LGA to DCA · Washington | 436 | 54.0% | 67 min | 10.55% | F− |
| LGA to DEN · Denver | 401 | 65.4% | 79 min | 5.24% | C− |
| LGA to BNA · Nashville | 366 | 65.9% | 66 min | 9.29% | C− |
| LGA to PBI · West Palm Beachthin sample | 336 | 72.2% | 95 min | 6.85% | C− |
| LGA to DTW · Detroitthin sample | 333 | 71.3% | 86 min | 11.11% | C− |
| LGA to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 325 | 74.3% | 112 min | 5.23% | C− |
| LGA to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 273 | 78.5% | 97 min | 8.79% | B− |
| LGA to CMH · Columbusthin sample | 267 | 66.1% | 69 min | 11.61% | C− |
| LGA to STL · St. Louisthin sample | 255 | 68.5% | 65 min | 9.02% | C− |
| LGA to PIT · Pittsburghthin sample | 250 | 75.2% | 66 min | 9.60% | B− |
| LGA to TPA · Tampathin sample | 234 | 69.2% | 53 min | 4.70% | C− |
| LGA to IND · Indianapolisthin sample | 216 | 67.0% | 65 min | 11.11% | C− |
| LGA to RDU · Raleighthin sample | 204 | 66.5% | 60 min | 12.25% | C− |
| LGA to RIC · Richmondthin sample | 198 | 69.6% | 60 min | 13.13% | C− |
| LGA to MDW · Chicagothin sample | 197 | 66.7% | 77 min | 12.69% | C− |
| LGA to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample | 169 | 62.7% | 75 min | 9.47% | D− |
| LGA to BUF · Buffalothin sample | 152 | 70.1% | 61 min | 11.84% | C− |
| LGA to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample | 151 | 79.7% | 78 min | 8.61% | B− |
Delay causes
What held LGA up in March
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 260,000 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%Carrier
- 25%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 1%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 260,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 21 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 259,913 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 9.73%, against 2.90% nationally. That is about one flight in ten 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. 13.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 9.5% 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 March
For a March trip through LGA: plan on this being one of the airport's harder months. The 5am–8am departures held up best at 84.4% on time, and with 13.7% 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 December62.2%
- LGA in January78.9%
- LGA in February78.5%
- 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.