Route reliability record
EWR→BNA
Newark to Nashville
- Flights
- 1,882
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 748 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 1,882 EWR to BNA flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
Best time to fly EWR to BNA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.5% of the time and Tuesday flights 80.6%, against 74.1% 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
74.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,819 completed flights
Avg delay
69 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.29%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
73.2% on time across 1,477 flights
These figures cover 1,882 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.3% 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 EWR to BNA
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 | 78.1% | 47 min | 5.65% | B− |
| United Airlines | 1,477 | 73.2% | 72 min | 2.84% | C |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 51 | 72.5% | 102 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on EWR to BNA
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 Newark to Nashville
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. JFK → BNANew York to Nashville | Republic Airways | 73.4% | 76.5% | 4.05% | 5am–8am, Mon | YX 4710 15:59 |
| 2. EWR → BNANewark to Nashville | United Airlines | 71.1% | 73.2% | 2.84% | 5am–8am, Tue | UA 1428 07:30 |
| 3. LGA → BNANew York to Nashville | Republic Airways | 70.0% | 74.4% | 5.91% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
| 4. LGA → BNANew York to Nashville | Delta Air Lines | 67.3% | 70.3% | 4.22% | 5am–8am, Fri | — |
| 5. JFK → BNANew York to Nashville | JetBlue Airways | 65.9% | 70.8% | 6.95% | 5am–8am, Tue | B6 1173 10:37 |
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 half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am236 flights90.5%
- 8am–11am216 flights83.7%
- 11am–2pm423 flights76.1%
- 2pm–5pm559 flights67.7%
- 5pm–8pm110 flights67.0%
- 8pm–5am338 flights66.7%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.5% of the time, against 66.7% for the overnight 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 559 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter EWR to BNA 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 EWR to BNA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.5% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 66.7%, a wide gap of 23.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.5%
- 8–11am83.7%
- 11am–2pm76.1%
- 2–5pm67.7%
- 5–8pm67.0%
- 8pm–5am66.7%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 29 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.
Delays peak in October, when the on-time rate falls to 60.8%. February is the strongest month at 90.0%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 29 points. October was the busiest month here, with 190 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 80.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 68.6%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 32,000 reported delay minutes.
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%National Airspace System
- 28%Carrier
- 7%Extreme weather
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 90.5% on time here. The split is drawn from 32,492 reported delay minutes.
No single cause dominates. late-arriving aircraft at 33%, national airspace system at 31% and carrier at 28% split the 32,000 reported delay minutes between them. An even spread like this usually means the operation is running close to its designed capacity with no one obvious weak point, and it is the hardest pattern for a traveller to route around.
Cancellations run at 3.29%, 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
9.3% 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 75.0% on time across 1,883 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 1,882 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 BNA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.29% 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. 1,819 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR to BNA questions
How often is EWR to BNA 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 25.9% of the 1,882 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is EWR to BNA compared with the rest of the country?
74.1% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 3 points against it. That is worth a C− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on EWR to BNA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 66.7%, 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 EWR to BNA?
October is the weakest month at 60.8% on time, compared with 90.0% in February. Across the year that is 29 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
- BNA to EWR — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on EWR to BNA78.1%
- United Airlines on EWR to BNA73.2%
- EWR to MCO, a related route77.9%
- ORD to BNA, a related route69.2%
- EWR to ATL, a related route76.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record78.1%
- United Airlines on-time record73.2%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record72.5%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. EWR to BNA and BNA to EWR 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.