Route reliability record
LGA→RSW
New York to Fort Myers
- Flights
- 869
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,080 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.7% 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 C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 869 LGA to RSW flights, with a median arrival 4 minutes early.
Best time to fly LGA to RSW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Thursday. Flights in that window arrived on time 85.2% of the time and Thursday flights 80.0%, against 73.3% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 4 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 40 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
73.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 824 completed flights
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.72%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
74.4% on time across 669 flights
These figures cover 869 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 LGA to RSW
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 Lines | 669 | 74.4% | 82 min | 4.78% | C− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 200 | 69.6% | 68 min | 4.50% | C− |
Flight by flight
Flights on LGA to RSW
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 Fort Myers
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. JFK → RSWNew York to Fort Myers | Delta Air Lines | 81.3% | 85.7% | 5.08% | 5am–8am, Sat | DL 2320 07:00 |
| 2. EWR → RSWNewark to Fort Myers | United Airlines | 76.9% | 78.5% | 2.03% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 3. LGA → RSWNew York to Fort Myers | Delta Air Lines | 70.8% | 74.4% | 4.78% | 5am–8am, Sat | DL 379 07:15 |
| 4. JFK → RSWNew York to Fort Myers | JetBlue Airways | 69.7% | 73.2% | 4.82% | 5am–8am, Wed | B6 1529 06:30 |
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–8am245 flights85.2%
- 8am–11am131 flights79.5%
- 11am–2pm199 flights70.5%
- 2pm–5pm294 flights62.9%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 85.2% of the time, against 62.9% for the afternoon 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 294 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter LGA to RSW 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 RSW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 85.2% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 62.9%, a wide gap of 22.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am85.2%
- 8–11am79.5%
- 11am–2pm70.5%
- 2–5pm62.9%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 28 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 60.2% on time, against 88.3% 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. March was the busiest month here, with 92 flights.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Monday the weakest at 60.3%, a spread of 20 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 17,000 reported delay minutes.
- 38%Carrier
- 29%National Airspace System
- 28%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 38%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 6,478 of the 17,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 17,133 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 4.72%, 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
10.9% 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 1,080 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 69.6% on time across 869 flights, 4 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 4 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 869 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 RSW after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.72% 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. 824 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
LGA to RSW questions
How often is LGA to RSW 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 26.7% of the 869 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 RSW compared with the rest of the country?
73.3% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 4 points against it. That is worth a C− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on LGA to RSW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 85.2% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 62.9%, 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 December delays on LGA to RSW?
December is the weakest month at 60.2% on time, compared with 88.3% in September. Across the year that is 28 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
- RSW to LGA — the return legseparate record
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- Southwest Florida International (RSW) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on LGA to RSW74.4%
- American Airlines on LGA to RSW69.6%
- LGA to ORD, a related route66.7%
- ORD to RSW, a related route75.6%
- LGA to ATL, a related route75.5%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record74.4%
- American Airlines on-time record69.6%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. LGA to RSW and RSW 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.