Route reliability record
EWR→CMH
Newark to Columbus
- Flights
- 2,045
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 463 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.7% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, more than 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 2,045 EWR to CMH flights, with a median arrival 14 minutes early.
Best time to fly EWR to CMH: a 11am–2pm departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.9% of the time and Wednesday flights 86.3%, against 83.6% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 6 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 60 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
83.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,947 completed flights
Avg delay
87 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.65%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Republic
83.7% on time across 2,018 flights
These figures cover 2,045 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 14 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 EWR to CMH
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 | 2,018 | 83.7% | 87 min | 4.56% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 27 | 70.8% | 89 min | 11.11% | C− |
Flight by flight
Flights on EWR to CMH
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 Newark to Columbus
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. EWR → CMHNewark to Columbus | Republic Airways | 79.9% | 83.7% | 4.56% | 11am–2pm, Wed (route) | YX 3641 08:50 |
| 2. JFK → CMHNew York to Columbus | Republic Airways | 75.6% | 78.7% | 3.99% | 8am–11am, Tue | YX 4767 15:59 |
| 3. LGA → CMHNew York to Columbus | Republic Airways | 73.6% | 77.2% | 4.61% | 5am–8am, Fri | YX 5671 17:30 |
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 12 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–8am18 flights—
- 8am–11am489 flights87.8%
- 11am–2pm210 flights88.9%
- 2pm–5pm442 flights84.8%
- 5pm–8pm581 flights80.6%
- 8pm–5am305 flights76.9%
Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 88.9% on time, ahead of 8pm–5am at 76.9%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 581 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.
July is the worst month at 64.8% on time, 28 points below May, the best at 93.2%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. September was the busiest month here, with 200 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.3% on time and Saturday the weakest at 79.6%. 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. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 28,000 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.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
44% 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 28,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 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 27,850 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.65%, against 1.81% 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
7.7% 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 an hour and a half, 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 11am–2pm window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 81.8% on time across 2,046 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 2,045 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 CMH after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.65% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 11am–2pm departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 1,947 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR to CMH questions
How often is EWR to CMH delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 16.4% of the 2,045 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is EWR to CMH compared with the rest of the country?
83.6% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.6%, a difference of 6 points in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on EWR to CMH?
The 11am–2pm departure window is the strongest at 88.9% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 76.9%, 12 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 July delays on EWR to CMH?
July is the weakest month at 64.8% on time, compared with 93.2% in May. 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
- CMH to EWR — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- John Glenn Columbus International (CMH) delay statistics
- EWR to MCO, a related route77.1%
- ORD to CMH, a related route73.1%
- EWR to ATL, a related route77.6%
- Republic Airways on-time record83.7%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record70.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. EWR to CMH and CMH 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.