Route reliability record
IND→LGA
Indianapolis to New York
- Flights
- 2,540
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 660 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.9% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% 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 2,540 IND to LGA flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
Best time to fly IND to LGA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.9% of the time and Saturday flights 85.5%, against 80.9% 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
80.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,403 completed flights
Avg delay
69 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.88%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
80.9% on time across 2,533 flights
These figures cover 2,540 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 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 7 | 85.7% | 23 min | 0.00% | A+ |
| Republic Airways | 2,533 | 80.9% | 69 min | 4.90% | B− |
Flight by flight
Flights on IND 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.
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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 21 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am623 flights89.9%
- 8am–11am523 flights85.7%
- 11am–2pm574 flights80.2%
- 2pm–5pm348 flights73.1%
- 5pm–8pm472 flights69.4%
- 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 89.9% of the time, against 69.4% for the evening window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 623 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter IND 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 IND to LGA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 69.4%, a wide gap of 20.5 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.9%
- 8–11am85.7%
- 11am–2pm80.2%
- 2–5pm73.1%
- 5–8pm69.4%
- 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 25 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.
Delays peak in March, when the on-time rate falls to 63.7%. February is the strongest month at 88.5%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 25 points. July was the busiest month here, with 234 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 85.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 77.9%, a spread of 8 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 45% of the 31,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%National Airspace System
- 27%Carrier
- 24%Late-arriving aircraft
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% 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 14,000 minutes out of 31,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 31,411 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.88%, against 1.89% 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
7.4% 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 660 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 75.1% on time across 2,540 flights, 6 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 6 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,540 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 LGA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.88% 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. 2,403 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
IND to LGA questions
How often is IND 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 19.1% of the 2,540 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 LGA compared with the rest of the country?
80.9% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 4 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 LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 69.4%, 21 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 IND to LGA?
March is the weakest month at 63.7% on time, compared with 88.5% in February. Across the year that is 25 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 IND — the return legseparate record
- Indianapolis International (IND) delay statistics
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- IND to ORD, a related route76.7%
- ORD to LGA, a related route66.6%
- IND to ATL, a related route87.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record85.7%
- Republic Airways on-time record80.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. IND to LGA and LGA 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.