Route reliability record
CMH→EWR
Columbus to Newark
- Flights
- 2,087
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 463 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.4% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, more than 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 2,087 CMH to EWR flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
Best time to fly CMH to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Friday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.9% of the time and Friday flights 87.1%, against 82.9% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 6 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 56 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
82.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,990 completed flights
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.36%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
83.1% on time across 2,059 flights
These figures cover 2,087 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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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on CMH 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 Airways | 2,059 | 83.1% | 66 min | 4.23% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 10 | 62.5% | 134 min | 20.00% | D− |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 18 | 62.5% | 120 min | 11.11% | D− |
Flight by flight
Flights on CMH 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 Columbus 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. 2 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. CMH → JFKColumbus to New York | Republic Airways | 79.9% | 83.8% | 4.71% | 8am–11am, Sat | YX 4808 09:03 |
| 2. CMH → EWRColumbus to Newark | Republic Airways | 79.6% | 83.1% | 4.23% | 5am–8am, Fri (route) | YX 3458 06:00 |
| 3. CMH → LGAColumbus to New York | Republic Airways | 75.7% | 79.6% | 4.96% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 5700 06:00 |
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 20 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am423 flights89.9%
- 8am–11am514 flights89.2%
- 11am–2pm623 flights83.3%
- 2pm–5pm214 flights70.1%
- 5pm–8pm304 flights69.9%
- 8pm–5am9 flights—
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.9% of the time, against 69.9% for the evening window. That is 20 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 623 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CMH 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 CMH to EWR, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 69.9%, a wide gap of 20.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.9%
- 8–11am89.2%
- 11am–2pm83.3%
- 2–5pm70.1%
- 5–8pm69.9%
- 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 28 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.
December is the weak month at 66.9% on time, against 95.2% in April. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. September was the busiest month here, with 200 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 87.1% on time and Tuesday the weakest at 78.6%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 52% of the 23,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 52%National Airspace System
- 23%Carrier
- 21%Late-arriving aircraft
- 4%Extreme weather
52% 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 12,000 minutes out of 23,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 22,991 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.36%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
6.2% 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 an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 463 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 83.8% on time across 2,087 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 2,087 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 4.36% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; 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. 1,990 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CMH to EWR questions
How often is CMH to EWR delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.1% of the 2,087 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is CMH to EWR compared with the rest of the country?
82.9% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 6 points in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on CMH to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 69.9%, 20 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 December delays on CMH to EWR?
December is the weakest month at 66.9% on time, compared with 95.2% in April. Across the year that is 28 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 CMH — the return legseparate record
- John Glenn Columbus International (CMH) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- CMH to ORD, a related route75.4%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- CMH to ATL, a related route84.8%
- Republic Airways on-time record83.1%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record62.5%
- United Airlines on-time record62.5%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. CMH to EWR and EWR to CMH 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.