Route reliability record
CMH→LGA
Columbus to New York
- Flights
- 3,035
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 479 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.8% 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 3,035 CMH to LGA flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly CMH to LGA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.4% of the time and Saturday flights 84.0%, against 79.2% 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
79.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,876 completed flights
Avg delay
73 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.81%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
79.6% on time across 2,904 flights
These figures cover 3,035 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.9% 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 CMH to LGA
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 4 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Republic Airways | 2,904 | 79.6% | 73 min | 4.96% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 127 | 70.2% | 79 min | 1.57% | C |
Flight by flight
Flights on CMH to LGA
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 New York
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 21 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am667 flights90.4%
- 8am–11am675 flights82.7%
- 11am–2pm492 flights77.6%
- 2pm–5pm528 flights71.9%
- 5pm–8pm618 flights70.9%
- 8pm–5am55 flights69.8%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.4% of the time, against 69.8% for the overnight 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 675 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter CMH to LGA 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 LGA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.4% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 69.8%, a wide gap of 20.6 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.4%
- 8–11am82.7%
- 11am–2pm77.6%
- 2–5pm71.9%
- 5–8pm70.9%
- 8pm–5am69.8%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 19 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 87.8% 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 305 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 84.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.1%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 49% of the 44,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%National Airspace System
- 26%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
49% 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 44,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 43,902 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.81%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in twenty 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
8.9% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 479 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 76.7% on time across 3,034 flights, within 3 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 3,035 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 LGA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.81% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over 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. 2,876 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
CMH to LGA questions
How often is CMH to LGA 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 20.8% of the 3,035 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is CMH to LGA compared with the rest of the country?
79.2% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 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 LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 69.8%, 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 October delays on CMH to LGA?
October is the weakest month at 68.7% on time, compared with 87.8% in September. Across the year that is 19 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
- LGA to CMH — the return legseparate record
- John Glenn Columbus International (CMH) delay statistics
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on CMH to LGA79.6%
- Spirit Airlines on CMH to LGA70.2%
- CMH to ORD, a related route75.4%
- ORD to LGA, a related route66.6%
- CMH to ATL, a related route84.8%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record100.0%
- Republic Airways on-time record79.6%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record70.2%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. CMH to LGA and LGA to CMH are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed CMH to LGA’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.