Route reliability record
GRR→LGA
Grand Rapids to New York
- Flights
- 915
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 618 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.3% 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 915 GRR to LGA flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly GRR to LGA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.2% of the time and Wednesday flights 87.4%, against 81.0% 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
81.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 864 completed flights
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.25%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
81.0% on time across 915 flights
These figures cover 915 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 9 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 GRR to LGA
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 | 915 | 81.0% | 71 min | 5.25% | B− |
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Grand Rapids to New York
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. GRR → LGAGrand Rapids to New York | Republic Airways | 76.7% | 81.0% | 5.25% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 2. GRR → EWRGrand Rapids to Newark | Republic Airways | 75.0% | 78.7% | 4.72% | 5am–8am, Thu (route) | YX 3718 06:00 |
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 25 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am308 flights91.2%
- 8am–11am54 flights88.7%
- 11am–2pm350 flights75.3%
- 2pm–5pm74 flights83.6%
- 5pm–8pm129 flights66.7%
- 8pm–5am—
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 91.2% of the time, against 66.7% for the evening window. That is 25 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 350 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter GRR to LGA 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 GRR to LGA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.2% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 66.7%, a wide gap of 24.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.2%
- 8–11am88.7%
- 11am–2pm75.3%
- 2–5pm83.6%
- 5–8pm66.7%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 37 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 54.9% on time, against 91.7% in February. 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 116 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 87.4% on time and Thursday the weakest at 77.3%, a spread of 10 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 12,000 reported delay minutes.
- 41%Carrier
- 28%National Airspace System
- 26%Late-arriving aircraft
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 41%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,738 of the 12,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 11,623 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 5.25%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about 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
7.4% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 618 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 77.8% on time across 915 flights, 3 points below 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 3 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 915 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 LGA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.25% 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. 864 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
GRR to LGA questions
How often is GRR to LGA 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 19.0% of the 915 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is GRR to LGA compared with the rest of the country?
81.0% 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 GRR to LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 66.7%, 25 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 GRR to LGA?
December is the weakest month at 54.9% on time, compared with 91.7% in February. Across the year that is 37 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
- LGA to GRR — the return legseparate record
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- GRR to ORD, a related route69.1%
- ORD to LGA, a related route66.6%
- GRR to DTW, a related route79.6%
- Republic Airways on-time record81.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. GRR to LGA and LGA to GRR 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.