Route reliability record
CLE→EWR
Cleveland to Newark
- Flights
- 2,162
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 404 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.8% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 2,162 CLE to EWR flights, of which Republic Airways flew 718 at 80.7% on time.
Best time to fly CLE to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.7% of the time and Wednesday flights 84.2%, against 80.1% 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
80.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,075 completed flights
Avg delay
93 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.84%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
80.7% on time across 718 flights
These figures cover 2,162 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on CLE to EWR
The two carriers here are closely matched: about a point separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 718 | 80.7% | 63 min | 6.55% | B− |
| United Airlines | 1,444 | 79.8% | 107 min | 2.49% | B |
Republic Airways cancels 6.5% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Flights on CLE to EWR
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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 Cleveland 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. 1 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. CLE → EWRCleveland to Newark | United Airlines | 77.8% | 79.8% | 2.49% | 5am–8am, Wed | UA 601 07:15 |
| 2. CLE → EWRCleveland to Newark | Republic Airways | 75.4% | 80.7% | 6.55% | 5pm–8pm, Sat | YX 3633 17:42 |
| 3. CLE → LGACleveland to New York | Republic Airways | 71.9% | 76.7% | 6.29% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 4677 06:49 |
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 24 points, against about a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am363 flights92.7%
- 8am–11am355 flights89.9%
- 11am–2pm434 flights81.3%
- 2pm–5pm403 flights75.1%
- 5pm–8pm604 flights68.7%
- 8pm–5am3 flights—
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 92.7% of the time, against 68.7% for the evening window. That is 24 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 604 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CLE 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 CLE to EWR, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.7% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 68.7%, a wide gap of 24.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.7%
- 8–11am89.9%
- 11am–2pm81.3%
- 2–5pm75.1%
- 5–8pm68.7%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 25 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 92.7% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. December was the busiest month here, with 192 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.0%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 56% of the 38,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%National Airspace System
- 26%Late-arriving aircraft
- 16%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
56% 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 21,000 minutes out of 38,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 38,352 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.84%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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
9.2% 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 404 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 80.1% on time across 2,163 flights, within half 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 2,162 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 3.84% 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. 2,075 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CLE to EWR questions
How often is CLE to EWR delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 19.9% of the 2,162 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on CLE to EWR?
Republic Airways leads at 80.7% on time across 718 flights. United Airlines is at the other end on 79.8%, a gap of about a point. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on CLE to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 68.7%, 24 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 CLE to EWR?
October is the weakest month at 67.4% on time, compared with 92.7% in April. Across the year that is 25 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 CLE — the return legseparate record
- Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on CLE to EWR80.7%
- United Airlines on CLE to EWR79.8%
- CLE to ORD, a related route74.5%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- CLE to ATL, a related route84.6%
- Republic Airways on-time record80.7%
- United Airlines on-time record79.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. CLE to EWR and EWR to CLE are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed CLE to EWR’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.