Route reliability record
EWR→IND
Newark to Indianapolis
- Flights
- 2,204
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 645 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.4% 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 2,204 EWR to IND flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
Best time to fly EWR to IND: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.8% of the time and Wednesday flights 85.3%, against 81.7% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 4 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 44 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
81.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,104 completed flights
Avg delay
80 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.36%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
83.4% on time across 1,948 flights
These figures cover 2,204 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.0% 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 IND
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlinesthin sample | 3 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Republic Airways | 1,948 | 83.4% | 83 min | 4.26% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 253 | 68.8% | 67 min | 5.14% | C− |
Flight by flight
Flights on EWR to IND
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 Indianapolis
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 → INDNewark to Indianapolis | Republic Airways | 79.8% | 83.4% | 4.26% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 3669 09:41 |
| 2. JFK → INDNew York to Indianapolis | Republic Airways | 71.8% | 76.0% | 5.55% | 11am–2pm, Wed | YX 4586 18:51 |
| 3. LGA → INDNew York to Indianapolis | Republic Airways | 70.7% | 75.0% | 5.80% | 8am–11am, Fri (route) | YX 5635 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 21 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am226 flights87.1%
- 8am–11am346 flights87.8%
- 11am–2pm373 flights84.6%
- 2pm–5pm392 flights83.0%
- 5pm–8pm554 flights80.6%
- 8pm–5am313 flights66.9%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 87.8% of the time, against 66.9% for the overnight window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 554 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter EWR to IND 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 IND, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 87.8% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 66.9%, a wide gap of 20.9 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am87.1%
- 8–11am87.8%
- 11am–2pm84.6%
- 2–5pm83.0%
- 5–8pm80.6%
- 8pm–5am66.9%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 23 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.
December is the weak month at 71.1% on time, against 93.6% in April. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. December was the busiest month here, with 207 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 85.3% on time and Monday the weakest at 78.2%, a spread of 7 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 42% of the 31,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%National Airspace System
- 22%Carrier
- 10%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 31,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 4 to one. The split is drawn from 30,542 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 87.8% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.36%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
8.0% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 645 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 85.6% on time across 2,205 flights, 4 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 4 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,204 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 IND after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.36% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 2,104 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR to IND questions
How often is EWR to IND delayed?
Roughly 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 18.3% of the 2,204 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 IND compared with the rest of the country?
81.7% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 4 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 IND?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 87.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 66.9%, 21 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 December delays on EWR to IND?
December is the weakest month at 71.1% on time, compared with 93.6% in April. Across the year that is 23 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
- IND to EWR — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Indianapolis International (IND) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on EWR to IND83.4%
- Spirit Airlines on EWR to IND68.8%
- EWR to MCO, a related route77.9%
- ORD to IND, a related route74.1%
- EWR to ATL, a related route76.9%
- United Airlines on-time record100.0%
- Republic Airways on-time record83.4%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record68.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. EWR to IND and IND to EWR are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed EWR to IND’s on-time badge on your site
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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.