Route reliability record
EWR→IAD
Newark to Washington
- Flights
- 1,561
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 212 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 1,561 EWR to IAD flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
Best time to fly EWR to IAD: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 95.7% of the time and Saturday flights 81.0%, against 74.8% 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
74.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,514 completed flights
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.95%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
74.8% on time across 1,532 flights
These figures cover 1,561 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.6% 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 IAD
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 | 29 | 76.9% | 40 min | 10.34% | B− |
| United Airlines | 1,532 | 74.8% | 72 min | 2.81% | C |
Flight by flight
Flights on EWR to IAD
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 Washington
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. ISP → BWIIslip to Baltimore | Southwest Airlines | 83.8% | 85.1% | 1.51% | 5am–8am, Fri | — |
| 2. EWR → IADNewark to Washington | United Airlines | 72.7% | 74.8% | 2.81% | 5am–8am, Sat (route) | UA 1366 06:00 |
| 3. LGA → IADNew York to Washington | Republic Airways | 70.7% | 76.1% | 7.13% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 3688 14:55 |
| 4. JFK → DCANew York to Washington | Republic Airways | 64.8% | 69.1% | 6.22% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 4538 06:30 |
| 5. LGA → DCANew York to Washington | Republic Airways | 61.9% | 65.7% | 5.83% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 5770 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 35 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am361 flights95.7%
- 8am–11am104 flights78.6%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm365 flights67.9%
- 5pm–8pm273 flights60.3%
- 8pm–5am458 flights71.7%
Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 60.3% on time, against 95.7% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 458 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter EWR to IAD 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 IAD, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 95.7% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 60.3%, a wide gap of 35.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am95.7%
- 8–11am78.6%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2–5pm67.9%
- 5–8pm60.3%
- 8pm–5am71.7%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 100%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
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.
May is the best month on the calendar at 86.5% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 156 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 81.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 62.6%, a spread of 18 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 27,000 reported delay minutes.
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%National Airspace System
- 26%Carrier
- 7%Extreme weather
39% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 27,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 27,163 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 95.7% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.95%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
9.6% 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.
At 212 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 77.1% on time across 1,560 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 1,561 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 IAD after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 2.95% 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. 1,514 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR to IAD questions
How often is EWR to IAD 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 25.2% of the 1,561 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 IAD compared with the rest of the country?
74.8% 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 IAD?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.7% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 60.3%, 35 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 IAD?
October is the weakest month at 65.3% on time, compared with 86.5% in May. 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
- IAD to EWR — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Washington Dulles International (IAD) delay statistics
- EWR to MCO, a related route77.9%
- ATL to IAD, a related route76.4%
- EWR to ATL, a related route76.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record76.9%
- United Airlines on-time record74.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. EWR to IAD and IAD 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.