Route reliability record
CMH→EWR
Columbus to Newark
- Flights
- 2,046
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 463 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.0% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% 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 2,046 CMH to EWR flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
Best time to fly CMH to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.8% of the time and Saturday flights 85.3%, against 81.8% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 4 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 42 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
81.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,961 completed flights
Avg delay
63 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.01%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Republic
81.9% on time across 2,019 flights
These figures cover 2,046 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 11 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.
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 | 2,019 | 81.9% | 63 min | 3.91% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 27 | 75.0% | 95 min | 11.11% | B− |
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.
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 | 80.7% | 83.6% | 3.49% | 8am–11am, Sat | YX 4808 09:04 |
| 2. CMH → EWRColumbus to Newark | Republic Airways | 78.7% | 81.9% | 3.91% | 5am–8am, Sat (route) | YX 3458 06:00 |
| 3. CMH → LGAColumbus to New York | Republic Airways | 75.9% | 79.5% | 4.51% | 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 21 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am473 flights88.8%
- 8am–11am456 flights88.1%
- 11am–2pm577 flights81.9%
- 2pm–5pm266 flights67.6%
- 5pm–8pm265 flights72.1%
- 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 88.8% of the time, against 67.6% for the afternoon window. That is 21 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 577 flights scheduled in it.
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, Saturday is the strongest day at 85.3% on time and Tuesday the weakest at 78.6%. 7 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 48% of the 23,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 48%National Airspace System
- 26%Carrier
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 3%Extreme weather
48% 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 11,000 minutes out of 23,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 22,522 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.01%, against 1.81% 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
6.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says 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 83.6% on time across 2,045 flights, within 2 points 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 2,046 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 4.01% 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. 1,961 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CMH to EWR questions
How often is CMH to EWR delayed?
Roughly 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 18.2% of the 2,046 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is CMH to EWR compared with the rest of the country?
81.8% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.6%, a difference of 4 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 88.8% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 67.6%, 21 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 route74.5%
- MCO to EWR, a related route73.8%
- CMH to ATL, a related route85.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record81.9%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record75.0%
- 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.