Flight number record
UA 2186
United Airlines · Santa Ana to Newark
- Route
- SNA → EWR
- Departs
- 21:14
- Flights
- 363
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s UA 2186, check with United Airlines.
UA 2186 earns an A−. Close to nine flights in ten arrive inside the 15-minute window the DOT uses to define an on-time arrival, which puts it 10 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. When something does go wrong the average delay runs about 5.0 hours. That rests on 363 flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, UA 2186's record is 10 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 101 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
87.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 349 completed flights
Avg delay
301 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.31%
National rate is 1.89%
1 hour+ late
5.4%
National rate is 8.3%
These figures cover 363 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 12 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Schedule
When UA 2186 flies
UA 2186 flies SNA to EWR without a single fixed slot. Its most common scheduled departure was 21:14, used on 132 of 363 flights, with 21:05 (91 flights) and 21:10 (58 flights) next.
- Departs 21:14132 flights36.4%
- Departs 21:0591 flights25.1%
- Departs 21:1058 flights16.0%
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 21:14 departure sits in the 8pm–5am window. Across every US flight scheduled in that window the on-time rate is 70.1%, and UA 2186 runs 17 points better at 87.4%. 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 2186 next to SNA to EWR
Every carrier on SNA to EWR combined arrived on time 79.3% of the time across 1,091 flights, so UA 2186 is 8 points ahead of it. Across its whole network United Airlines managed 78.8%, which this flight beats by 9 points.
| Compared with | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA 2186thin sample | 363 | 87.4% | 301 min | 3.31% | A− |
| All United Airlines on SNA–EWR | 1,091 | 79.3% | 134 min | 2.11% | B |
| All carriers on SNA–EWR | 1,091 | 79.3% | 134 min | 2.11% | B |
| United Airlines, whole network | 830,825 | 78.8% | 73 min | 1.02% | B |
Across the year
UA 2186 quarter by quarter
UA 2186 did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Jul–Sep 2025 at 96.7% on time and its weakest Jul–Sep 2026 at 72.7%, a swing of 24 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.
- Jul–Sep 202530 flights96.7%
- Oct–Dec 202591 flights92.0%
- Jan–Mar 202690 flights85.1%
- Apr–Jun 202691 flights91.0%
- Jul–Sep 202661 flights72.7%
Scale runs 65% to 100%.
By weekday, UA 2186 did best on Saturday at 98.0% on time and worst on Sunday at 73.5%. Each day rests on about 52 flights, so a gap of 25 points is worth noticing but could still narrow in another year.
Arrival by arrival
How late UA 2186 runs when it is late
UA 2186 often beats the schedule: 152 of 349 completed flights, 44%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 44 late arrivals split 16 under half an hour, 9 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 19 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early152 flights43.6%
- Within 15 min153 flights43.8%
- 15–29 min late16 flights4.6%
- 30–59 min late9 flights2.6%
- 1–2 hours late1 flights0.3%
- 2+ hours late18 flights5.2%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 349 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
A late pushback is often recovered here: of 48 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, 16 still arrived on time. 12 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for UA 2186
The latest arrival of the period was on 4 January 2026, 14 hours 43 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The five worst days are spread across January, August and July, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 4 January 2026 | 14 hours 43 minutes | Carrier |
| 2 August 2026 | 12 hours 41 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 18 July 2026 | 12 hours 39 minutes | Carrier |
| 16 August 2026 | 12 hours 22 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 25 January 2026 | 12 hours 21 minutes | Extreme weather |
Delay causes
Why UA 2186 runs late
Extreme weather accounts for 51% of the 13,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 51%Extreme weather
- 24%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 11%Late-arriving aircraft
Extreme weather accounts for 51% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the quarterly figures above are the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 8.5 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 13,262 delay minutes reported on UA 2186.
Cancellations run at 3.31%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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
5.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about 5.0 hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,433 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.
Every one of the 363 flights under UA 2186 in the data flew SNA to EWR. The number was not reused on any other city pair, which makes this a clean record of one route.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 363 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 2186
For a booking, the cancellation rate is the figure to plan around on UA 2186: 3.31% of its 363 scheduled flights did not operate. A late arrival costs about 5.0 hours, but a cancellation costs the day, so leave a later option open.
Related
Where to go next
- SNA to EWR, every carrier and departure
- EWR to SNA, the return direction
- United Airlines 1559 on the same route63.8%
- John Wayne Airport (SNA) 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
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
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.