Route reliability record
GRR→LGA
Grand Rapids to New York
- Flights
- 966
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 618 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.9% 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 966 GRR to LGA flights, with a median arrival 8 minutes early.
Best time to fly GRR to LGA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Monday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.5% of the time and Monday flights 83.9%, against 79.6% 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
79.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 918 completed flights
Avg delay
63 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.87%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Republic
79.6% on time across 966 flights
These figures cover 966 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 8 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 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 | 966 | 79.6% | 63 min | 4.87% | B− |
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 → EWRGrand Rapids to Newark | Republic Airways | 75.9% | 78.6% | 3.42% | 5am–8am, Tue (route) | YX 3718 06:00 |
| 2. GRR → LGAGrand Rapids to New York | Republic Airways | 75.7% | 79.6% | 4.87% | 5am–8am, Mon | — |
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 26 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–8am298 flights90.5%
- 8am–11am61 flights88.3%
- 11am–2pm370 flights75.7%
- 2pm–5pm59 flights81.5%
- 5pm–8pm178 flights65.0%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.5% of the time, against 65.0% for the evening window. That is 26 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 370 flights scheduled in it.
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. July was the busiest month here, with 116 flights.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 83.9% on time and Thursday the weakest at 75.7%. 8 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
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.
- 39%Carrier
- 33%National Airspace System
- 25%Late-arriving aircraft
- 2%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 39%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 4,662 of the 12,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 11,824 reported delay minutes.
33% 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 3,943 minutes out of 12,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 4.87%, against 1.81% 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
7.8% 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 about 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. 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 runs 78.0% on time across 966 flights, within 2 points 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. 966 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 4.87% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 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. 918 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 20.4% of the 966 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is GRR to LGA compared with the rest of the country?
79.6% 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 GRR to LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 65.0%, 26 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 route68.3%
- ORD to LGA, a related route67.3%
- GRR to DTW, a related route78.2%
- Republic Airways on-time record79.6%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.