Route reliability record
IAD→EWR
Washington to Newark
- Flights
- 1,560
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 212 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 1,560 IAD to EWR flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
Best time to fly IAD to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 95.5% of the time and Wednesday flights 81.7%, against 77.1% 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
77.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,516 completed flights
Avg delay
98 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.76%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
77.1% on time across 1,530 flights
These figures cover 1,560 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on IAD to EWR
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 Airwaysthin sample | 30 | 77.8% | 68 min | 10.00% | B− |
| United Airlines | 1,530 | 77.1% | 98 min | 2.61% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on IAD to EWR
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.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Washington to Newark
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.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. DCA → JFKWashington to New York | JetBlue Airways | 76.4% | 81.3% | 6.07% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 2. BWI → ISPBaltimore to Islip | Southwest Airlines | 76.3% | 77.8% | 1.90% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 3. IAD → EWRWashington to Newark | United Airlines | 75.1% | 77.1% | 2.61% | 5am–8am, Wed (route) | UA 2669 06:00 |
| 4. DCA → JFKWashington to New York | Republic Airways | 71.5% | 76.0% | 5.98% | 5am–8am, Wed | YX 5713 17:00 |
| 5. IAD → LGAWashington to New York | Republic Airways | 68.0% | 73.1% | 6.92% | 8am–11am, 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.
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 40 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am364 flights95.5%
- 8am–11am361 flights81.0%
- 11am–2pm104 flights70.7%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm365 flights55.3%
- 8pm–5am366 flights78.4%
Scale runs 45% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 55.3% on time, against 95.5% 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. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 366 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter IAD to EWR 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 IAD to EWR, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 95.5% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 55.3%, a wide gap of 40.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am95.5%
- 8–11am81.0%
- 11am–2pm70.7%
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm55.3%
- 8pm–5am78.4%
best all US flightsScale 45% to 100%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 22 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.
May is the best month on the calendar at 89.4% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 155 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 81.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.7%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 47% of the 34,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 47%National Airspace System
- 21%Late-arriving aircraft
- 16%Carrier
- 15%Extreme weather
Extreme weather accounts for 15% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 2.5 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 33,932 reported delay minutes.
47% 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 16,000 minutes out of 34,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 2.76%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 40 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
8.5% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 212 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 74.8% on time across 1,561 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.
The sample behind these figures is 1,560 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in EWR after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. May runs 89.4% on time and November 67.0%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of November before you think about anything else. 1,516 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
IAD to EWR questions
How often is IAD to EWR delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 22.9% of the 1,560 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is IAD to EWR compared with the rest of the country?
77.1% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of half a point against it. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on IAD to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 95.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 55.3%, 40 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 November delays on IAD to EWR?
November is the weakest month at 67.0% on time, compared with 89.4% in May. Across the year that is 22 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 IAD — the return legseparate record
- Washington Dulles International (IAD) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- IAD to ATL, a related route78.0%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- IAD to DEN, a related route83.1%
- Republic Airways on-time record77.8%
- United Airlines on-time record77.1%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. IAD to EWR and EWR to IAD 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.