Carrier route record
DLEWR→MSP
Delta Air Lines · Newark to Minneapolis
- Flights
- 1,240
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 56%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on EWR to MSP carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.6% 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 1,240 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Republic Airways, flew 481 at 86.8% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Delta on EWR to MSP from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
79.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,182 completed flights
Avg delay
116 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.60%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
79.3%
Every carrier on EWR to MSP, 2,226 flights
These figures cover 1,240 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.7% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Delta against every carrier on EWR to MSP
Delta flew 1,240 of the 2,226 flights on EWR to MSP, most of the route. Its 79.0% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 79.3%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 86.8% to SkyWest at 66.7%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 86.8% of the time; United Airlines manages 73.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 496 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 481 | 86.8% | 50 min | 6.44% | A− |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 1,240 | 79.0% | 116 min | 4.60% | B− |
| United Airlines | 496 | 73.3% | 83 min | 2.82% | C |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 9 | 66.7% | 25 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Republic Airways cancels 6.4% 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
Delta flight numbers on EWR to MSP
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Departure window
When Delta runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am365 flights88.2%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm349 flights82.4%
- 2pm–5pm179 flights76.5%
- 5pm–8pm347 flights67.3%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.2% of the time, against 67.3% for the evening 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 365 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on EWR to MSP through the year
May is the best month on the calendar at 90.1% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. October was the busiest month here, with 119 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.2%, a spread of 14 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Delta on EWR to MSP runs when it is late
Delta on EWR to MSP often beats the schedule: 493 of 1,182 completed flights, 42%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 248 late arrivals split 60 under half an hour, 73 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 115 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early493 flights41.7%
- Within 15 min441 flights37.3%
- 15–29 min late60 flights5.1%
- 30–59 min late73 flights6.2%
- 1–2 hours late51 flights4.3%
- 2+ hours late64 flights5.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,182 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
42 of 237 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 18% of them. 53 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Delta on EWR to MSP
The latest arrival of the period was on 3 April 2026, 17 hours 52 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). The same cause led on five of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 3 April 2026 | 17 hours 52 minutes | Carrier |
| 23 October 2025 | 15 hours 50 minutes | Carrier |
| 26 September 2025 | 13 hours 20 minutes | Carrier |
| 23 May 2026 | 12 hours 22 minutes | Carrier |
| 15 July 2026 | 11 hours 36 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why Delta runs late on this route
Carrier accounts for 46% of the 29,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Carrier
- 32%Late-arriving aircraft
- 16%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 46%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 13,000 of the 29,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 28,816 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 88.2% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.60%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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 costs
9.7% 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.
The 1,008 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 runs 78.1% on time across 1,240 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 1,240 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 Delta on EWR to MSP
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.60% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; 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. 1,182 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- EWR to MSP, every carrier
- Delta on MSP to EWR, the return leg
- Republic Airways on EWR to MSP86.8%
- United Airlines on EWR to MSP73.3%
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.