Carrier route record
UAEWR→BNA
United Airlines · Newark to Nashville
- Flights
- 1,390
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 74%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on EWR to BNA sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 1,390 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate United on EWR to BNA from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,357 completed flights
Avg delay
68 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.30%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
75.5%
Every carrier on EWR to BNA, 1,867 flights
These figures cover 1,390 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
United against every carrier on EWR to BNA
United flew 1,390 of the 1,867 flights on EWR to BNA, most of the route. Its 75.1% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 75.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 78.4% to Spirit at 67.9%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 | 396 | 78.4% | 52 min | 5.30% | B− |
| United Airlines (this page) | 1,390 | 75.1% | 68 min | 2.30% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 81 | 67.9% | 92 min | 3.70% | C− |
Flight by flight
United flight numbers on EWR to BNA
Departure window
When United runs best on this route
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. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am199 flights89.8%
- 8am–11am123 flights88.0%
- 11am–2pm264 flights79.7%
- 2pm–5pm440 flights65.9%
- 5pm–8pm33 flights78.1%
- 8pm–5am331 flights69.7%
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.8% of the time, against 65.9% for the afternoon 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 440 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on EWR to BNA through the year
Delays peak in October, when the on-time rate falls to 54.3%. February is the strongest month at 88.6%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 34 points. June was the busiest month here, with 151 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 83.6% on time and Thursday the weakest at 69.9%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
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 23,000 reported delay minutes.
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 28%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
37% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 23,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 22,805 reported delay minutes.
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 89.8% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.30% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.07%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 9.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg runs 76.0% on time across 1,391 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 1,390 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.
What to do with this
Booking United on EWR to BNA
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 88.6% on time and October 54.3%, a swing of 34 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of October before you think about anything else. 1,357 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- EWR to BNA, every carrier
- United on BNA to EWR, the return leg
- Republic Airways on EWR to BNA78.4%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Nashville International (BNA) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
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.