Route reliability record
EWR→PBI
Newark to West Palm Beach
- Flights
- 3,395
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,024 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 3,395 EWR to PBI flights, of which United Airlines flew 2,616 at 79.4% on time.
Best time to fly EWR to PBI: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.0% of the time and Wednesday flights 85.0%, against 77.5% 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
77.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,289 completed flights
Avg delay
66 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.80%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
79.4% on time across 2,616 flights
These figures cover 3,395 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on EWR to PBI
The two carriers here are closely matched: 6 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 2,616 | 79.4% | 67 min | 2.10% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 659 | 73.8% | 62 min | 3.49% | C− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 120 | 51.5% | 72 min | 14.17% | F− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 3.5% 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 PBI
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 West Palm Beach
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. EWR → PBINewark to West Palm Beach | United Airlines | 77.7% | 79.4% | 2.10% | 5am–8am, Wed | UA 1771 06:30 |
| 2. JFK → PBINew York to West Palm Beach | Delta Air Lines | 77.1% | 80.9% | 4.65% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 2018 07:00 |
| 3. EWR → FLLNewark to Fort Lauderdale | United Airlines | 76.2% | 78.2% | 2.53% | 5am–8am, Tue | UA 1364 07:00 |
| 4. JFK → FLLNew York to Fort Lauderdale | Delta Air Lines | 72.4% | 75.3% | 3.90% | 5am–8am, Tue | DL 1422 07:00 |
| 5. ISP → PBIIslip to West Palm Beach | JetBlue Airways | 71.8% | 73.7% | 2.59% | 5am–8am, Tue | B6 545 13:55 |
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 19 points, against 6 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am553 flights88.0%
- 8am–11am853 flights79.4%
- 11am–2pm555 flights74.2%
- 2pm–5pm708 flights74.1%
- 5pm–8pm477 flights75.0%
- 8pm–5am249 flights69.1%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.0% of the time, against 69.1% for the overnight window. That is 19 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 853 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter EWR to PBI 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 PBI, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.0% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 69.1%, a wide gap of 18.9 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.0%
- 8–11am79.4%
- 11am–2pm74.2%
- 2–5pm74.1%
- 5–8pm75.0%
- 8pm–5am69.1%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 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 67.9% on time, against 87.7% in May. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 409 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 85.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.5%, a spread of 15 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 49,000 reported delay minutes.
- 38%National Airspace System
- 32%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
38% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 19,000 minutes out of 49,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 48,891 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 88.0% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.80%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 40 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
7.8% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,024 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 75.8% on time across 3,394 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 3,395 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 PBI after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 2.80% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 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. 3,289 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR to PBI questions
How often is EWR to PBI delayed?
Roughly 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 22.5% of the 3,395 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on EWR to PBI?
United Airlines leads at 79.4% on time across 2,616 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 73.8%, a gap of 6 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 PBI?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 88.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 69.1%, 19 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 PBI?
December is the weakest month at 67.9% on time, compared with 87.7% in May. Across the year that is 20 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
- PBI to EWR — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Palm Beach International (PBI) delay statistics
- United Airlines on EWR to PBI79.4%
- JetBlue Airways on EWR to PBI73.8%
- Spirit Airlines on EWR to PBI51.5%
- EWR to MCO, a related route77.9%
- ATL to PBI, a related route75.8%
- EWR to ATL, a related route76.9%
- United Airlines on-time record79.4%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record73.8%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record51.5%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. EWR to PBI and PBI 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.