Route reliability record
FLL→EWR
Fort Lauderdale to Newark
- Flights
- 4,759
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Distance
- 1,065 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 4,759 flights, of which United Airlines flew 2,640 at 76.6% on time.
United Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 76.6% on time across 2,640 flights.
Key figures
On time
70.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 4,590 completed flights
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.32%
National rate is 1.80%
Best carrier
United
76.6% on time across 2,640 flights
These figures cover 4,759 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on FLL to EWR
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 76.6% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 61.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,131 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 2,640 | 76.6% | 85 min | 2.27% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 988 | 62.6% | 76 min | 3.34% | D− |
| Spirit Airlines | 1,131 | 61.1% | 71 min | 5.75% | D− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 5.8% 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.
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 36 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am862 flights91.0%
- 8am–11am786 flights82.6%
- 11am–2pm833 flights71.1%
- 2pm–5pm781 flights59.5%
- 5pm–8pm766 flights56.5%
- 8pm–5am731 flights55.4%
Scale runs 45% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 55.4% on time, against 91.0% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 27 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 58.8% on time, 27 points below May, the best at 86.1%. 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.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 76.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 60.4%. 16 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. National Airspace System accounts for 50% of the 107,000 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.
- 50%National Airspace System
- 27%Late-arriving aircraft
- 20%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% 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 53,000 minutes out of 107,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 3.32%, against 1.80% 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
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 13.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 1,065 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 74.7% on time across 4,762 flights, 5 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 5 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 4,759 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 this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.32% 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.
Common questions
FLL to EWR questions
How often is FLL to EWR delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 29.9% of the 4,759 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on FLL to EWR?
United Airlines leads at 76.6% on time across 2,640 flights. Spirit Airlines is at the other end on 61.1%, a gap of 15 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 FLL to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 55.4%, 36 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 FLL to EWR?
July is the weakest month at 58.8% on time, compared with 86.1% in May. Across the year that is 27 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
- EWR to FLL — the return legseparate record
- Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International (FLL) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- United Airlines on-time record76.6%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record62.6%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record61.1%
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. FLL to EWR and EWR to FLL are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.