Route reliability record
EWR→CLE
Newark to Cleveland
- Flights
- 2,163
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 404 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.7% 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 2,163 EWR to CLE flights, of which Republic Airways flew 718 at 87.7% on time.
Best time to fly EWR to CLE: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.2% of the time and Tuesday flights 84.3%, against 80.1% 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
80.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,082 completed flights
Avg delay
83 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.74%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
87.7% on time across 718 flights
These figures cover 2,163 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.7% 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 CLE
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 87.7% of the time; United Airlines manages 76.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,445 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 718 | 87.7% | 55 min | 5.15% | A− |
| United Airlines | 1,445 | 76.4% | 90 min | 3.04% | B− |
Republic Airways cancels 5.2% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Flights on EWR to CLE
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.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Newark to Cleveland
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. 1 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. EWR → CLENewark to Cleveland | Republic Airways | 83.2% | 87.7% | 5.15% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 2. EWR → CLENewark to Cleveland | United Airlines | 74.1% | 76.4% | 3.04% | 5am–8am, Tue | UA 1611 18:35 |
| 3. LGA → CLENew York to Cleveland | Republic Airways | 69.3% | 73.8% | 6.12% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 4722 20:58 |
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 16 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am113 flights87.2%
- 8am–11am377 flights87.1%
- 11am–2pm316 flights86.6%
- 2pm–5pm628 flights80.9%
- 5pm–8pm435 flights71.7%
- 8pm–5am294 flights72.4%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.2% of the time, against 71.7% for the evening window. That is 16 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 628 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter EWR to CLE 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 CLE, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 87.2% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 71.7%, a wide gap of 15.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am87.2%
- 8–11am87.1%
- 11am–2pm86.6%
- 2–5pm80.9%
- 5–8pm71.7%
- 8pm–5am72.4%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 21 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.
April is the best month on the calendar at 92.2% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. December was the busiest month here, with 192 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.5%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 34,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 5%Extreme weather
50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 34,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 34,284 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 87.2% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.74%, against 1.89% 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
8.7% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 404 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 80.1% on time across 2,162 flights, within half 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 2,163 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 CLE after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.74% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 2,082 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR to CLE questions
How often is EWR to CLE 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 19.9% of the 2,163 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on EWR to CLE?
Republic Airways leads at 87.7% on time across 718 flights. United Airlines is at the other end on 76.4%, a gap of 11 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on EWR to CLE?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 71.7%, 16 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 CLE?
October is the weakest month at 71.4% on time, compared with 92.2% in April. Across the year that is 21 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
- CLE to EWR — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Cleveland Hopkins International (CLE) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on EWR to CLE87.7%
- United Airlines on EWR to CLE76.4%
- EWR to MCO, a related route77.9%
- ORD to CLE, a related route70.8%
- EWR to ATL, a related route76.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record87.7%
- United Airlines on-time record76.4%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
Direction matters. EWR to CLE and CLE 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.