Route reliability record
LGA→XNA
New York to Bentonville
- Flights
- 918
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,147 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.2% 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 918 LGA to XNA flights, with a median arrival 11 minutes early.
Best time to fly LGA to XNA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Friday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.5% of the time and Friday flights 81.2%, against 76.1% 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
76.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 858 completed flights
Avg delay
76 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.23%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
76.1% on time across 918 flights
These figures cover 918 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 XNA
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 | 918 | 76.1% | 76 min | 5.23% | B− |
Flight by flight
Flights on LGA to XNA
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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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 30 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am137 flights92.5%
- 8am–11am164 flights81.4%
- 11am–2pm263 flights75.9%
- 2pm–5pm75 flights79.7%
- 5pm–8pm198 flights63.3%
- 8pm–5am81 flights62.9%
Scale runs 55% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 62.9% on time, against 92.5% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 263 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter LGA to XNA 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 XNA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.5% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 62.9%, a wide gap of 29.6 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.5%
- 8–11am81.4%
- 11am–2pm75.9%
- 2–5pm79.7%
- 5–8pm63.3%
- 8pm–5am62.9%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 41 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 48.6% on time, against 89.2% 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 81 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 81.2% on time and Thursday the weakest at 68.8%, a spread of 12 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 49% of the 15,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%National Airspace System
- 19%Carrier
- 8%Extreme weather
49% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 15,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 15,486 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 92.5% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.23%, 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.
The 1,147 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 77.2% on time across 918 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 918 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 XNA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.23% 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. 858 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
LGA to XNA questions
How often is LGA to XNA 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 23.9% of the 918 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 XNA compared with the rest of the country?
76.1% 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 LGA to XNA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 62.9%, 30 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 XNA?
December is the weakest month at 48.6% on time, compared with 89.2% in September. Across the year that is 41 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
- XNA to LGA — the return legseparate record
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- LGA to ORD, a related route66.7%
- DFW to XNA, a related route77.9%
- LGA to ATL, a related route75.5%
- Republic Airways on-time record76.1%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. LGA to XNA and XNA to LGA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed LGA to XNA’s on-time badge on your site
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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.