Route reliability record
BNA→EWR
Nashville to Newark
- Flights
- 1,883
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 748 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a B−. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 1,883 BNA to EWR flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
Best time to fly BNA to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.0% of the time and Wednesday flights 82.7%, against 75.0% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,819 completed flights
Avg delay
84 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.13%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
75.4% on time across 1,478 flights
These figures cover 1,883 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on BNA to EWR
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 354 | 76.5% | 63 min | 6.21% | B− |
| United Airlines | 1,478 | 75.4% | 89 min | 2.44% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 51 | 52.0% | 83 min | 1.96% | F |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Nashville to Newark
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. BNA → JFKNashville to New York | Republic Airways | 75.6% | 78.0% | 3.11% | 8am–11am, Mon | YX 4712 12:00 |
| 2. BNA → EWRNashville to Newark | United Airlines | 73.6% | 75.4% | 2.44% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 3. BNA → LGANashville to New York | Republic Airways | 70.2% | 73.7% | 4.70% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 4676 10:37 |
| 4. BNA → JFKNashville to New York | JetBlue Airways | 68.6% | 73.8% | 7.10% | 5am–8am, Fri | B6 1174 13:53 |
| 5. BNA → LGANashville to New York | Southwest Airlines | 66.7% | 68.2% | 2.27% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 33 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am326 flights91.0%
- 8am–11am444 flights83.1%
- 11am–2pm279 flights77.5%
- 2pm–5pm426 flights63.2%
- 5pm–8pm335 flights58.3%
- 8pm–5am73 flights86.2%
Scale runs 50% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 58.3% on time, against 91.0% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 444 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter BNA to EWR by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On BNA to EWR, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.0% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 58.3%, a wide gap of 32.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.0%
- 8–11am83.1%
- 11am–2pm77.5%
- 2–5pm63.2%
- 5–8pm58.3%
- 8pm–5am86.2%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 32 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
April is the best month on the calendar at 89.5% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. October was the busiest month here, with 190 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 82.7% on time and Monday the weakest at 67.2%, a spread of 16 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 45% of the 38,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%National Airspace System
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 21%Carrier
- 1%Extreme weather
45% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 17,000 minutes out of 38,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 38,255 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 91.0% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.13%, 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 stage length
What a delay here actually costs
10.8% 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 return leg runs 74.1% on time across 1,882 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 1,883 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in EWR after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.13% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 1,819 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
BNA to EWR questions
How often is BNA to EWR delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 25.0% of the 1,883 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is BNA to EWR compared with the rest of the country?
75.0% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points against it. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on BNA to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.0% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 58.3%, 33 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are October delays on BNA to EWR?
October is the weakest month at 57.2% on time, compared with 89.5% in April. Across the year that is 32 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- EWR to BNA — the return legseparate record
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on BNA to EWR76.5%
- United Airlines on BNA to EWR75.4%
- BNA to ORD, a related route70.9%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- BNA to DCA, a related route71.3%
- Republic Airways on-time record76.5%
- United Airlines on-time record75.4%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record52.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. BNA to EWR and EWR to BNA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.