Route reliability record
LGA→MSP
New York to Minneapolis
- Flights
- 1,815
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,020 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by an hour and a half on average. That rests on 1,815 LGA to MSP flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
Best time to fly LGA to MSP: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.7% of the time and Wednesday flights 84.9%, against 81.6% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 4 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 43 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
81.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,760 completed flights
Avg delay
89 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.92%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
81.6% on time across 1,811 flights
These figures cover 1,815 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 11 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 LGA to MSP
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 Airwaysthin sample | 4 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,811 | 81.6% | 89 min | 2.93% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on LGA to MSP
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 Minneapolis
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. 3 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. EWR → MSPNewark to Minneapolis | Republic Airways | 81.2% | 86.8% | 6.44% | 2pm–5pm, Thu | — |
| 2. LGA → MSPNew York to Minneapolis | Delta Air Lines | 79.2% | 81.6% | 2.93% | 5am–8am, Wed (route) | DL 2510 06:00 |
| 3. EWR → MSPNewark to Minneapolis | Delta Air Lines | 75.4% | 79.0% | 4.60% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 1641 06:15 |
| 4. EWR → MSPNewark to Minneapolis | United Airlines | 71.2% | 73.3% | 2.82% | 5am–8am, Fri | — |
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–8am374 flights91.7%
- 8am–11am317 flights89.9%
- 11am–2pm367 flights84.5%
- 2pm–5pm369 flights72.5%
- 5pm–8pm363 flights72.9%
- 8pm–5am25 flights—
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 91.7% of the time, against 72.5% for the afternoon 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 374 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter LGA to MSP 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 MSP, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.7% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 72.5%, a wide gap of 19.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.7%
- 8–11am89.9%
- 11am–2pm84.5%
- 2–5pm72.5%
- 5–8pm72.9%
- 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 22 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 71.7% on time, against 94.0% 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. May was the busiest month here, with 177 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.1%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 46% of the 29,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 46%Carrier
- 29%National Airspace System
- 22%Late-arriving aircraft
- 3%Security
- 1%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 46%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 13,000 of the 29,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 28,582 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.92%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,020 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 runs 78.8% on time across 1,813 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 1,815 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 MSP after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 2.92% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 1,760 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
LGA to MSP questions
How often is LGA to MSP delayed?
Roughly 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 18.4% of the 1,815 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is LGA to MSP compared with the rest of the country?
81.6% 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 LGA to MSP?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.7% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 72.5%, 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 LGA to MSP?
December is the weakest month at 71.7% on time, compared with 94.0% in September. Across the year that is 22 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
- MSP to LGA — the return legseparate record
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- LGA to ORD, a related route66.7%
- ORD to MSP, a related route69.9%
- LGA to ATL, a related route75.5%
- Republic Airways on-time record100.0%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record81.6%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. LGA to MSP and MSP 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.