Route reliability record
IND→EWR
Indianapolis to Newark
- Flights
- 2,223
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 645 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.9% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, more than 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 2,223 flights, with a median arrival 14 minutes early.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 7 points better than the US average of 77.6%. That gap is worth roughly 66 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
84.2%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,132 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.91%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
Republic
83.7% on time across 1,903 flights
These figures cover 2,223 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 14 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 IND 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlinesthin sample | 4 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 316 | 87.3% | 83 min | 5.06% | A− |
| Republic Airways | 1,903 | 83.7% | 75 min | 3.73% | B− |
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. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am550 flights92.8%
- 8am–11am557 flights91.6%
- 11am–2pm367 flights83.3%
- 2pm–5pm365 flights74.7%
- 5pm–8pm376 flights70.2%
- 8pm–5am8 flights—
Scale runs 60% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 92.8% of the time, against 70.2% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 557 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 20 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 73.1% on time, 20 points below May, the best at 92.7%. 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. December was the busiest month here, with 208 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 87.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 81.0%. 6 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 60% of the 26,000 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.
- 60%National Airspace System
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 16%Carrier
- 2%Extreme weather
60% 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 15,000 minutes out of 26,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 25,680 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.91%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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
5.8% 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 are the a little over an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 645 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 81.6% on time across 2,221 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.
The sample behind these figures is 2,223 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 3.91% 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. 2,132 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
IND to EWR questions
How often is IND to EWR delayed?
About one flight in six arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.8% of the 2,223 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is IND to EWR compared with the rest of the country?
84.2% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.6%, a difference of 7 points in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on IND to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 70.2%, 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 July delays on IND to EWR?
July is the weakest month at 73.1% on time, compared with 92.7% in May. Across the year that is 20 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 IND — the return legseparate record
- Indianapolis International (IND) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- United Airlines on-time record100.0%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record87.3%
- Republic Airways on-time record83.7%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. IND to EWR and EWR to IND 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.