Flight number record
UA 1981
United Airlines · Los Angeles to Newark
- Route
- LAX → EWR
- Departs
- 11:15
- Flights
- 327
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s UA 1981, check with United Airlines.
UA 1981 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 an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 327 flights, with a median arrival 2 minutes early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so UA 1981 runs 9 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 88 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
68.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 317 completed flights
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.83%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
14.5%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 327 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 14.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Schedule
When UA 1981 flies
UA 1981 flies LAX to EWR without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 11:15, used on 123 of 327 flights, with 11:40 (80 flights) and 11:45 (64 flights) next.
- Departs 11:15123 flights37.6%
- Departs 11:4080 flights24.5%
- Departs 11:4564 flights19.6%
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 11:15 departure sits in the 11am–2pm window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 78.3%, and UA 1981 runs 10 points worse at 68.5%. Midday slots inherit some of the morning's delays without yet carrying the full weight of the evening's.
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Against the route
UA 1981 next to LAX to EWR
Every carrier on LAX to EWR combined arrived on time 79.1% of the time across 4,748 flights, so UA 1981 is 11 points behind it. United flew 3,526 flights on the same city pair under all its flight numbers, including this one, and those ran 77.7% 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 1981thin sample | 327 | 68.5% | 88 min | 1.83% | C |
| All United Airlines on LAX–EWR | 3,526 | 77.7% | 77 min | 1.76% | B |
| All carriers on LAX–EWR | 4,748 | 79.1% | 75 min | 2.11% | B |
| United Airlines, whole network | 830,825 | 78.8% | 73 min | 1.02% | B |
Across the year
UA 1981 quarter by quarter
UA 1981 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 83.9% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 43.9%, a swing of 40 points on roughly 82 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.
- Jul–Sep 202529 flights—
- Oct–Dec 202591 flights66.7%
- Jan–Mar 202689 flights72.9%
- Apr–Jun 202656 flights83.9%
- Jul–Sep 202662 flights43.9%
Scale runs 35% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
By weekday, UA 1981 did best on Tuesday at 81.8% on time and worst on Sunday at 58.1%. Each day rests on about 47 flights, so a gap of 24 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late UA 1981 runs when it is late
UA 1981 often beats the schedule: 100 of 317 completed flights, 32%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 100 late arrivals split 28 under half an hour, 26 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 46 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early100 flights31.5%
- Within 15 min117 flights36.9%
- 15–29 min late28 flights8.8%
- 30–59 min late26 flights8.2%
- 1–2 hours late20 flights6.3%
- 2+ hours late26 flights8.2%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 317 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
24 of 99 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 24% of them. In the other direction, 25 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at EWR.
The worst days
Worst days for UA 1981
The latest arrival of the period was on 13 October 2025, 7 hours 18 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. The same cause led on three of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 13 October 2025 | 7 hours 18 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 8 November 2025 | 6 hours 39 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 27 August 2026 | 5 hours 29 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 15 January 2026 | 4 hours 50 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 30 October 2025 | 4 hours 35 minutes | National Airspace System |
Delay causes
Why UA 1981 runs late
National Airspace System accounts for 43% of the 8,791 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%National Airspace System
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%Carrier
39% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 8,791 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 39 to one. The split is drawn from 8,791 delay minutes reported on UA 1981.
Cancellations sit at 1.83% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 1.22%.
Connections and routes
What a delay on this flight costs
14.5% 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.
At 2,454 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The same number turns up on five other city pairs in the data, including MCO to LAX (32), EWR to ORD (24) and CLE to IAD (1), but none flew often enough under UA 1981 to report a rate for. Carriers move flight numbers between routes, so the figures on this page apply to LAX to EWR only.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 327 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 1981
For a booking, UA 1981 is a flight to put a long connection behind. 14.5% of its completed flights arrived an hour or more late, which a short layover will not absorb. If the onward flight is on a separate ticket, the risk sits with you.
Related
Where to go next
- LAX to EWR, every carrier and departure
- EWR to LAX, the return direction
- United Airlines 2127 on the same route73.4%
- United Airlines 2303 on the same route75.7%
- United Airlines 2096 on the same route79.9%
- United Airlines 2743 on the same route93.5%
- United Airlines 2397 on the same route87.5%
- United Airlines 1855 on the same route62.3%
- Los Angeles International (LAX) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) 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.