Route reliability record
LGA→CMH
New York to Columbus
- Flights
- 3,034
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 479 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.3% 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 3,034 LGA to CMH flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
Best time to fly LGA to CMH: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Friday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.2% of the time and Friday flights 79.4%, against 76.7% 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
76.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,869 completed flights
Avg delay
82 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.31%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
76.4% on time across 2,905 flights
These figures cover 3,034 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.6% 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 LGA to CMH
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 | 4 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 125 | 83.5% | 57 min | 3.20% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 2,905 | 76.4% | 83 min | 5.40% | B− |
Flight by flight
Flights on LGA to CMH
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.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly New York to Columbus
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 → CMHNewark to Columbus | Republic Airways | 79.6% | 83.9% | 5.10% | 11am–2pm, Wed (route) | YX 3641 08:45 |
| 2. JFK → CMHNew York to Columbus | Republic Airways | 73.5% | 77.7% | 5.42% | 8am–11am, Wed | YX 4767 15:59 |
| 3. LGA → CMHNew York to Columbus | Republic Airways | 72.3% | 76.4% | 5.40% | 5am–8am, Tue | YX 5671 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 22 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am407 flights89.2%
- 8am–11am565 flights78.9%
- 11am–2pm499 flights79.2%
- 2pm–5pm460 flights75.6%
- 5pm–8pm704 flights71.3%
- 8pm–5am399 flights67.5%
Scale runs 60% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.2% of the time, against 67.5% for the overnight window. That is 22 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 704 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter LGA to CMH 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 LGA to CMH, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.2% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 67.5%, a wide gap of 21.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.2%
- 8–11am78.9%
- 11am–2pm79.2%
- 2–5pm75.6%
- 5–8pm71.3%
- 8pm–5am67.5%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 26 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 91.9% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. October was the busiest month here, with 305 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 79.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 73.0%, a spread of 6 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 44% of the 55,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 44%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%National Airspace System
- 24%Carrier
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
44% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 55,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 to one. The split is drawn from 54,572 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 89.2% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.31%, 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
10.6% 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.
At 479 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 79.2% on time across 3,035 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 3,034 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 CMH after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.31% 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. 2,869 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
LGA to CMH questions
How often is LGA to CMH 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 23.3% of the 3,034 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is LGA to CMH compared with the rest of the country?
76.7% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of half a point against it. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on LGA to CMH?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 67.5%, 22 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 LGA to CMH?
March is the weakest month at 66.1% on time, compared with 91.9% in September. Across the year that is 26 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
- CMH to LGA — the return legseparate record
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- John Glenn Columbus International (CMH) delay statistics
- Spirit Airlines on LGA to CMH83.5%
- Republic Airways on LGA to CMH76.4%
- LGA to ORD, a related route66.7%
- ORD to CMH, a related route73.5%
- LGA to ATL, a related route75.5%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record100.0%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record83.5%
- Republic Airways on-time record76.4%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. LGA to CMH and CMH to LGA 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.