Route reliability record
EWR→PWM
Newark to Portland
- Flights
- 984
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 284 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.4% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% 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 984 EWR to PWM flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
Best time to fly EWR to PWM: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 98.7% of the time and Tuesday flights 86.1%, against 81.9% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 4 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 43 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
81.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 950 completed flights
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.35%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Republic
86.6% on time across 825 flights
These figures cover 984 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 12 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on EWR to PWM
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 Airways | 825 | 86.6% | 66 min | 2.91% | A |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 159 | 56.4% | 79 min | 5.66% | D− |
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Newark to Portland
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. 1 of the top 2 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. EWR → PWMNewark to Portland | Republic Airways | 84.1% | 86.6% | 2.91% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 2. LGA → PWMNew York to Portland | Republic Airways | 73.4% | 77.2% | 4.88% | 8am–11am, Sat (route) | — |
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 27 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am78 flights98.7%
- 8am–11am109 flights90.7%
- 11am–2pm171 flights89.9%
- 2pm–5pm63 flights82.3%
- 5pm–8pm235 flights79.5%
- 8pm–5am328 flights72.0%
Scale runs 65% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 98.7% of the time, against 72.0% for the overnight window. That is 27 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 328 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 34 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 56.5% on time, against 90.6% 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. October was the busiest month here, with 129 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 86.1% on time and Monday the weakest at 78.8%. 7 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 57% of the 12,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 57%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 0%Extreme weather
57% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 12,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 57 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 12,161 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 98.7% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.35%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about 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
7.7% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says 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.
At 284 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 83.1% on time across 1,095 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.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 984 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in PWM after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.35% 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. 950 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
EWR to PWM questions
How often is EWR to PWM delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 18.1% of the 984 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is EWR to PWM compared with the rest of the country?
81.9% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.6%, 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 PWM?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 98.7% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 72.0%, 27 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 PWM?
December is the weakest month at 56.5% on time, compared with 90.6% in May. Across the year that is 34 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
- PWM to EWR — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on EWR to PWM86.6%
- United Airlines on EWR to PWM56.4%
- EWR to MCO, a related route77.1%
- ORD to PWM, a related route74.0%
- EWR to ATL, a related route77.6%
- Republic Airways on-time record86.6%
- United Airlines on-time record56.4%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. EWR to PWM and PWM 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.