Route reliability record
IND→JFK
Indianapolis to New York
- Flights
- 974
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 665 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.4% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% 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 974 IND to JFK flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
Best time to fly IND to JFK: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Friday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.5% of the time and Friday flights 87.3%, against 82.8% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 6 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 55 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
82.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 934 completed flights
Avg delay
73 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.39%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
82.8% on time across 974 flights
These figures cover 974 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 10 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 IND to JFK
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 | 974 | 82.8% | 73 min | 3.39% | B− |
Flight by flight
Flights on IND to JFK
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 Indianapolis 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. 2 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. IND → EWRIndianapolis to Newark | Republic Airways | 81.0% | 85.0% | 4.67% | 8am–11am, Sat | YX 3567 06:00 |
| 2. IND → JFKIndianapolis to New York | Republic Airways | 80.0% | 82.8% | 3.39% | 5am–8am, Fri | YX 4631 07:11 |
| 3. IND → LGAIndianapolis to New York | Republic Airways | 76.9% | 80.9% | 4.90% | 5am–8am, Sat (route) | YX 4797 07:00 |
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 19 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am233 flights91.5%
- 8am–11am71 flights87.3%
- 11am–2pm454 flights81.7%
- 2pm–5pm176 flights74.1%
- 5pm–8pm40 flights73.0%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 91.5% of the time, against 73.0% for the evening window. That is 19 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 454 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter IND to JFK 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 IND to JFK, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.5% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 73.0%, a wide gap of 18.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.5%
- 8–11am87.3%
- 11am–2pm81.7%
- 2–5pm74.1%
- 5–8pm73.0%
- 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 18 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 74.0% on time, against 91.5% in September. 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. December was the busiest month here, with 103 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 87.3% on time and Saturday the weakest at 79.3%, a spread of 8 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.
- 40%National Airspace System
- 38%Late-arriving aircraft
- 15%Carrier
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
38% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 12,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 to one. The split is drawn from 11,776 reported delay minutes.
40% 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 4,713 minutes out of 12,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 3.39%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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
6.6% 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 665 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 76.0% on time across 973 flights, 7 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 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 974 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 JFK after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.39% 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. 934 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
IND to JFK questions
How often is IND to JFK delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.2% of the 974 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is IND to JFK compared with the rest of the country?
82.8% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 6 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 JFK?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 73.0%, 19 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 IND to JFK?
December is the weakest month at 74.0% on time, compared with 91.5% in September. Across the year that is 18 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
- JFK to IND — the return legseparate record
- Indianapolis International (IND) delay statistics
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- IND to ORD, a related route76.7%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- IND to ATL, a related route87.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record82.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. IND to JFK and JFK to IND 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.