Route reliability record
EWR→PIT
Newark to Pittsburgh
- Flights
- 1,740
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 319 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.5% 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 1,740 EWR to PIT flights, with a median arrival 13 minutes early.
Best time to fly EWR to PIT: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.7% of the time and Tuesday flights 85.7%, against 81.4% 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 41 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
81.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,643 completed flights
Avg delay
87 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.46%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
81.4% on time across 1,690 flights
These figures cover 1,740 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 13 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 PIT
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 | 6 | 83.3% | 93 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 1,690 | 81.4% | 85 min | 5.44% | B− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 44 | 80.5% | 162 min | 6.82% | B− |
Flight by flight
Flights on EWR to PIT
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.
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Newark to Pittsburgh
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. 3 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. EWR → PITNewark to Pittsburgh | Republic Airways | 77.0% | 81.4% | 5.44% | 5am–8am, Tue (route) | YX 3403 19:29 |
| 2. LGA → PITNew York to Pittsburgh | Republic Airways | 74.2% | 78.6% | 5.66% | 5am–8am, Fri (route) | YX 4579 13:10 |
| 3. JFK → PITNew York to Pittsburgh | Republic Airways | 71.6% | 76.3% | 6.18% | 11am–2pm, Sat | YX 4611 19:40 |
| 4. JFK → PITNew York to Pittsburgh | JetBlue Airways | 62.3% | 66.2% | 5.95% | 2pm–5pm, Wed | B6 1195 22:00 |
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 16 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am42 flights92.7%
- 8am–11am297 flights87.1%
- 11am–2pm53 flights84.6%
- 2pm–5pm282 flights84.1%
- 5pm–8pm710 flights79.0%
- 8pm–5am356 flights77.0%
Scale runs 70% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.7% of the time, against 77.0% for the overnight window. That is 16 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 710 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter EWR to PIT 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 PIT, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.7% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 77.0%, a wide gap of 15.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.7%
- 8–11am87.1%
- 11am–2pm84.6%
- 2–5pm84.1%
- 5–8pm79.0%
- 8pm–5am77.0%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 30 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 62.9% on time, 30 points below May, the best at 92.4%. 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. October was the busiest month here, with 185 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 85.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.8%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 27,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 10%Extreme weather
46% 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 5 to one. The split is drawn from 26,523 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 92.7% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.46%, 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 actually costs
7.1% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 319 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 87.0% on time across 1,741 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 1,740 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 PIT after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.46% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 1,643 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR to PIT questions
How often is EWR to PIT delayed?
About 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 18.6% of the 1,740 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is EWR to PIT compared with the rest of the country?
81.4% 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 PIT?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.7% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 77.0%, 16 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 PIT?
July is the weakest month at 62.9% on time, compared with 92.4% in May. Across the year that is 30 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
- PIT to EWR — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Pittsburgh International (PIT) delay statistics
- EWR to MCO, a related route77.9%
- ORD to PIT, a related route73.6%
- EWR to ATL, a related route76.9%
- United Airlines on-time record83.3%
- Republic Airways on-time record81.4%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record80.5%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. EWR to PIT and PIT 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.