Flight number record
UA 1261
United Airlines · Newark to Nashville
- Route
- EWR → BNA
- Departs
- 21:28
- Flights
- 291
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s UA 1261, check with United Airlines.
UA 1261 sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 9 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 291 flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so UA 1261 runs 9 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 87 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
68.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 277 completed flights
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.81%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
13.0%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 291 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Schedule
When UA 1261 flies
UA 1261 flies EWR to BNA without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 21:28, used on 56 of 291 flights, with 20:50 (32 flights) and 20:29 (30 flights) next.
- Departs 21:2856 flights19.2%
- Departs 20:5032 flights11.0%
- Departs 20:2930 flights10.3%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of scheduled departures at each local time. Times used on fewer than one flight in ten are not listed.
A 21:28 departure sits in the 8pm–5am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 70.1%, and UA 1261 runs level with that at 68.6%. By that time of day most aircraft have flown several legs already, and whatever went wrong earlier is still in the schedule.
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Against the route
UA 1261 next to EWR to BNA
Every carrier on EWR to BNA combined arrived on time 74.1% of the time across 1,882 flights, so UA 1261 is 6 points behind it. United flew 1,477 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 73.2% on time. Across its whole network United Airlines managed 78.8%, which this flight trails by 10 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA 1261thin sample | 291 | 68.6% | 67 min | 4.81% | C− |
| All United Airlines on EWR–BNA | 1,477 | 73.2% | 72 min | 2.84% | C |
| All carriers on EWR–BNA | 1,882 | 74.1% | 69 min | 3.29% | C− |
| United Airlines, whole network | 830,825 | 78.8% | 73 min | 1.02% | B |
Across the year
UA 1261 quarter by quarter
UA 1261 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 77.8% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 50.0%, a swing of 28 points on roughly 73 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
- Oct–Dec 202548 flights57.8%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights76.7%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights77.8%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights50.0%
Scale runs 40% to 85%.
By weekday, UA 1261 did best on Saturday at 76.9% on time and worst on Sunday at 57.9%. Each day rests on about 42 flights, so a gap of 19 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late UA 1261 runs when it is late
UA 1261 often beats the schedule: 96 of 277 completed flights, 35%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 87 late arrivals split 26 under half an hour, 25 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 36 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early96 flights34.7%
- Within 15 min94 flights33.9%
- 15–29 min late26 flights9.4%
- 30–59 min late25 flights9.0%
- 1–2 hours late24 flights8.7%
- 2+ hours late12 flights4.3%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 277 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
17 of 94 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 18% of them. 10 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for UA 1261
The latest arrival of the period was on 20 August 2026, 4 hours 38 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across August, July, June and March, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 20 August 2026 | 4 hours 38 minutes | Carrier |
| 3 July 2026 | 4 hours 19 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 28 July 2026 | 3 hours 56 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 14 June 2026 | 3 hours 32 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 16 March 2026 | 3 hours 28 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why UA 1261 runs late
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 5,839 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 5,839 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 22 to one. The split is drawn from 5,839 delay minutes reported on UA 1261.
Cancellations run at 4.81%, against 1.89% 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.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
13.0% 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.
The 748 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The same number turns up on seven other city pairs in the data, including SAT to EWR (48), SLC to EWR (24) and ORD to MIA (23), but none flew often enough under UA 1261 to report a rate for. Carriers move flight numbers between routes, so the figures on this page apply to EWR to BNA only.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 291 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking UA 1261
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on UA 1261: 4.81% of its 291 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs about an hour, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- EWR to BNA, every carrier and departure
- BNA to EWR, the return direction
- United Airlines 2454 on the same route64.5%
- United Airlines 1428 on the same route90.3%
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- United Airlines on-time record
- Every United Airlines flight number with a record
- The most and least reliable flight numbers in the US
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
A flight number here means United Airlines’s own number as it reports to the DOT. How the figures are computed is on the methodology page.
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.