Route reliability record
ILM→LGA
Wilmington to New York
- Flights
- 1,024
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 500 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 6.7% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four 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 1,024 ILM to LGA flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
Best time to fly ILM to LGA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Friday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.4% of the time and Friday flights 81.5%, against 76.2% 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
76.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 951 completed flights
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
6.74%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
76.2% on time across 1,024 flights
These figures cover 1,024 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.4% 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 ILM 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 | 1,024 | 76.2% | 75 min | 6.74% | B− |
Flight by flight
Flights on ILM to LGA
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.
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
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.
- 5am–8am323 flights90.4%
- 8am–11am24 flights—
- 11am–2pm362 flights70.7%
- 2pm–5pm23 flights—
- 5pm–8pm292 flights67.5%
- 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 90.4% of the time, against 67.5% for the evening 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 362 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ILM 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 ILM to LGA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.4% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 67.5%, a wide gap of 22.9 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.4%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm70.7%
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm67.5%
- 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 34 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 93.4% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. June was the busiest month here, with 99 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 81.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.3%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 17,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%National Airspace System
- 17%Carrier
- 6%Extreme weather
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 17,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 17,017 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 5,663 minutes out of 17,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 6.74%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in fifteen 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
11.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 500 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 runs 73.3% on time across 1,024 flights, within 3 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. 1,024 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 6.74% 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. 951 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ILM to LGA questions
How often is ILM to LGA delayed?
About 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 23.8% of the 1,024 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is ILM to LGA compared with the rest of the country?
76.2% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about a point against it. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ILM to LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 67.5%, 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 March delays on ILM to LGA?
March is the weakest month at 59.5% on time, compared with 93.4% in September. Across the year that is 34 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 ILM — the return legseparate record
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- ILM to CLT, a related route87.2%
- ORD to LGA, a related route66.6%
- ILM to ATL, a related route87.4%
- Republic Airways on-time record76.2%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. ILM to LGA and LGA to ILM 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.