Route reliability record
JFK→IND
New York to Indianapolis
- Flights
- 973
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 665 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.5% 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 973 JFK to IND flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly JFK to IND: a 11am–2pm departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 88.3% of the time and Wednesday flights 78.2%, against 76.0% 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
76.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 918 completed flights
Avg delay
87 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.55%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
76.0% on time across 973 flights
These figures cover 973 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.9% 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 JFK to IND
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 | 973 | 76.0% | 87 min | 5.55% | B− |
Flight by flight
Flights on JFK to IND
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 New York to Indianapolis
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. EWR → INDNewark to Indianapolis | Republic Airways | 79.8% | 83.4% | 4.26% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 3669 09:41 |
| 2. JFK → INDNew York to Indianapolis | Republic Airways | 71.8% | 76.0% | 5.55% | 11am–2pm, Wed | YX 4586 18:51 |
| 3. LGA → INDNew York to Indianapolis | Republic Airways | 70.7% | 75.0% | 5.80% | 8am–11am, Fri (route) | YX 5635 17:30 |
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 17 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am143 flights82.9%
- 11am–2pm106 flights88.3%
- 2pm–5pm305 flights72.4%
- 5pm–8pm267 flights74.1%
- 8pm–5am152 flights70.9%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 11am–2pm slot at 88.3% on time, ahead of 8pm–5am at 70.9%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 305 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter JFK to IND 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 JFK to IND, the best departure window is 11am–2pm at 88.3% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 70.9%, a wide gap of 17.4 points. All US flights leaving 11am–2pm ran 78.3%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am82.9%
- 11am–2pm88.3%
- 2–5pm72.4%
- 5–8pm74.1%
- 8pm–5am70.9%
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 31 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.
August is the worst month at 58.2% on time, 31 points below May, the best at 88.9%. 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 103 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 78.2% on time and Tuesday the weakest at 72.9%, a spread of 5 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 62% of the 19,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 62%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%National Airspace System
- 14%Carrier
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
62% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 19,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 to one. The split is drawn from 19,076 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 5.55%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
10.9% 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 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 82.8% on time across 974 flights, 7 points above 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. 973 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 IND after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.55% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 11am–2pm departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 918 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
JFK to IND questions
How often is JFK to IND 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 24.0% of the 973 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is JFK to IND compared with the rest of the country?
76.0% 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 JFK to IND?
The 11am–2pm departure window is the strongest at 88.3% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 70.9%, 17 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 August delays on JFK to IND?
August is the weakest month at 58.2% on time, compared with 88.9% in May. Across the year that is 31 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
- IND to JFK — the return legseparate record
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Indianapolis International (IND) delay statistics
- JFK to LAX, a related route75.4%
- ORD to IND, a related route74.1%
- JFK to SFO, a related route71.4%
- Republic Airways on-time record76.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. JFK to IND and IND to JFK 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.