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DelayAtlas

Route reliability record

EWRSRQ

Newark to Sarasota

Flights
929
Period
July 2025 to June 2026
Distance
1,034 mi
Carriers
2
BGRADE

This route lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 929 EWR to SRQ flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.

Best time to fly EWR to SRQ: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Monday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.8% of the time and Monday flights 83.6%, against 80.0% for the route overall.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, 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

80.0%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 908 completed flights

Avg delay

72 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

2.26%

National rate is 1.81%

Best carrier

United

78.8% on time across 799 flights

These figures cover 929 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 11 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 SRQ

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.

On-time performance by carrier on EWR to SRQ
AirlineFlightsOn timeAvg delayCancelledGrade
Republic Airwaysthin sample13087.6%36 min6.92%A−
United Airlines79978.8%75 min1.50%B

Flight by flight

Flights on EWR to SRQ

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.

Best ways to make this trip

The most reliable ways to fly Newark to Sarasota

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.

Most reliable ways to fly from EWR to SRQ
OptionAirlineSuccessOn timeCancelledBest departureMost punctual flight
1. EWRTPANewark to TampaUnited Airlines79.7%81.4%2.03%5am–8am, TueUA 1979 07:00
2. EWRSRQNewark to SarasotaUnited Airlines77.6%78.8%1.50%5am–8am, MonUA 2631 06:30
3. JFKTPANew York to TampaDelta Air Lines77.5%79.6%2.65%5am–8am, WedDL 2042 07:00
4. JFKTPANew York to TampaJetBlue Airways72.9%75.9%3.91%5am–8am, WedB6 225 20:29
5. LGATPANew York to TampaDelta Air Lines71.4%73.7%3.18%5am–8am, Sat

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.

Plan this trip by month, day and time

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 23 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–8am319 flights91.8%
  • 8am–11am45 flights75.0%
  • 11am–2pm
  • 2pm–5pm201 flights81.9%
  • 5pm–8pm
  • 8pm–5am364 flights69.0%

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 91.8% of the time, against 69.0% for the overnight window. That is 23 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 364 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

When delays peak on this route

This route's year swings by 17 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.

On-time rate by calendar month83J87F80M87A84M72J70J79A82S81O79N73D
Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.February best, July worst

July is the worst month at 70.0% on time, 17 points below February, the best at 87.0%. 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. January was the busiest month here, with 93 flights.

Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 83.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.1%. 13 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

On-time rate by day of the week83.6Mon79.9Tue83.3Wed81.4Thu79.4Fri81.0Sat71.1Sun
Monday: 83.6 percent on time. Tuesday: 79.9 percent on time. Wednesday: 83.3 percent on time. Thursday: 81.4 percent on time. Friday: 79.4 percent on time. Saturday: 81.0 percent on time. Sunday: 71.1 percent on time

Delay causes

Why this route gets delayed

One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 13,000 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.

  • Late-arriving aircraft
    50%
  • Carrier
    31%
  • National Airspace System
    16%
  • Extreme weather
    3%

50% 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 13,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 17 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 13,132 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 91.8% on time here.

Cancellations sit at 2.26% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.

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.

The 1,034 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 86.5% on time across 929 flights, 7 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 7 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 929 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 SRQ after this flight

What to do with this

Booking this route

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 929 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 80.0% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 908 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

EWR to SRQ questions

How often is EWR to SRQ 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 20.0% of the 929 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 SRQ compared with the rest of the country?

80.0% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.6%, a difference of 2 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 SRQ?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 69.0%, 23 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 SRQ?

July is the weakest month at 70.0% on time, compared with 87.0% in February. Across the year that is 17 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

Direction matters. EWR to SRQ and SRQ 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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Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.

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.