Airport month record

LGASEP

LaGuardia in September 2025

Departures: 11,388
Month: September 2025
National, same month: 83.4%
Carriers: 9

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

LGA in September lands a B+, about a point worse than the national rate of 83.4%. About one flight in six 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 11,388 flights, of which Spirit Airlines flew 431 at 87.9% on time.

Spirit Airlines is the most reliable of the six carriers covered here at 87.9% on time across 431 flights.

On time

82.4%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 11,261 completed departures

Avg delay

77 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.89%

Nationally in September: 0.51%

Whole year

73.4%

LGA across all twelve months

These figures cover 11,388 departures from LaGuardia 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 LGA's other months

Against LGA's own year, September ran 9 points better than the twelve-month rate of 73.4%, which makes it the best of the twelve months in the data. Cancellations were unusually low for LGA in September, at 0.89% against 4.56% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 81.0% on time and October 66.8%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

LGA month by month
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 (this page)	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	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 September

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 22 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,603 flights92.8%
8am–11am2,023 flights90.0%
11am–2pm2,069 flights88.2%
2pm–5pm2,382 flights77.2%
5pm–8pm2,048 flights70.9%
8pm–5am1,263 flights75.4%

Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.8% of the time, against 70.9% for the evening window. That is 22 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 2,382 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 87.7% on time and Thursday the weakest at 72.9%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at LGA in September

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Spirit Airlines arrives on time 87.9% of the time; American Airlines manages 77.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,312 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at LGA in September 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Republic Airways	4,659	82.8%	68 min	1.50%	B
Delta Air Lines	2,524	84.4%	85 min	0.24%	B+
American Airlines	1,312	77.7%	87 min	0.84%	B+
Southwest Airlines	960	82.0%	81 min	0.31%	B+
United Airlines	825	82.4%	65 min	0.36%	B+
Spirit Airlines	431	87.9%	102 min	0.70%	A+
JetBlue Airwaysthin sample	330	82.7%	72 min	0.30%	B+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	205	68.7%	94 min	1.46%	C
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	142	80.9%	56 min	0.70%	B+

Spirit leads American by 10 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of LGA in September

Routes from LGA in September 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
LGA to ORD · Chicago	972	77.4%	75 min	0.31%	B+
LGA to ATL · Atlanta	746	87.7%	82 min	0.13%	A+
LGA to BOS · Boston	634	65.3%	69 min	3.15%	C−
LGA to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth	590	76.7%	91 min	2.03%	B
LGA to MIA · Miami	477	75.1%	101 min	0.21%	B+
LGA to DEN · Denver	399	77.3%	74 min	0.25%	B+
LGA to MCO · Orlando	395	84.7%	77 min	0.25%	B+
LGA to CLT · Charlotte	387	88.0%	90 min	1.03%	A
LGA to DCA · Washington	386	81.4%	57 min	1.04%	B
LGA to IAH · Houston	369	86.1%	59 min	0.00%	A+
LGA to DTW · Detroit	365	88.7%	81 min	0.55%	A+
LGA to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample	311	79.5%	76 min	0.32%	B+
LGA to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	301	84.2%	78 min	0.33%	B+
LGA to PIT · Pittsburghthin sample	294	85.5%	88 min	1.36%	A
LGA to CMH · Columbusthin sample	259	91.9%	120 min	0.39%	A+
LGA to RDU · Raleighthin sample	255	81.5%	46 min	1.96%	B
LGA to IND · Indianapolisthin sample	218	85.6%	56 min	0.92%	A+
LGA to TPA · Tampathin sample	216	81.0%	92 min	0.00%	B+
LGA to STL · St. Louisthin sample	204	83.2%	62 min	0.98%	B+
LGA to MDW · Chicagothin sample	198	87.7%	84 min	0.51%	A+
LGA to BUF · Buffalothin sample	190	88.7%	56 min	2.11%	A
LGA to RIC · Richmondthin sample	184	82.3%	73 min	1.63%	B
LGA to PBI · West Palm Beachthin sample	164	80.9%	117 min	0.61%	B+
LGA to GSO · Greensborothin sample	164	87.0%	68 min	1.83%	A
LGA to CLE · Clevelandthin sample	158	82.7%	64 min	1.27%	B

Delay causes

What held LGA 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 152,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
36%
National Airspace System
32%
Carrier
27%
Extreme weather
5%
Security
0%

36% 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 152,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 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 151,914 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.89%, 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 LGA in September

For a September trip through LGA: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 82.4% on time with 0.89% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Where to go next

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