Route reliability record
MKE→EWR
Milwaukee to Newark
- Flights
- 851
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 725 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.9% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about four flights in five 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 851 MKE to EWR flights, with a median arrival 13 minutes early.
Best time to fly MKE to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 86.4% of the time and Saturday flights 87.2%, against 79.9% 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
79.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 798 completed flights
Avg delay
89 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.88%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
79.9% on time across 851 flights
These figures cover 851 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 13 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 MKE to EWR
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 | 851 | 79.9% | 89 min | 5.88% | B− |
Flight by flight
Flights on MKE to EWR
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 Milwaukee to Newark
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. 1 of the top 2 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. MKE → EWRMilwaukee to Newark | Republic Airways | 75.2% | 79.9% | 5.88% | 5am–8am, Sat | YX 3510 19:08 |
| 2. MKE → LGAMilwaukee to New York | Republic Airways | 75.0% | 81.1% | 7.49% | 5am–8am, Thu | — |
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 11 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am160 flights86.4%
- 8am–11am21 flights—
- 11am–2pm340 flights79.6%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm330 flights75.6%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 65% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 86.4% of the time, against 75.6% for the evening window. That is 11 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 340 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MKE to EWR 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 MKE to EWR, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 86.4% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 75.6%, a wide gap of 10.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am86.4%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm79.6%
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm75.6%
- 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 25 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 69.0% on time, against 94.1% in May. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 91 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 87.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.0%, a spread of 12 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 14,000 reported delay minutes.
- 37%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 27%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
37% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 14,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 13 to one. The split is drawn from 14,246 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 86.4% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.88%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in fifteen 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 725 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 83.6% on time across 852 flights, 4 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 4 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 851 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 EWR after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.88% 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. 798 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MKE to EWR questions
How often is MKE to EWR delayed?
About 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 20.1% of the 851 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is MKE to EWR compared with the rest of the country?
79.9% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 3 points in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MKE to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 86.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 75.6%, 11 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 MKE to EWR?
December is the weakest month at 69.0% on time, compared with 94.1% in May. Across the year that is 25 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
- EWR to MKE — the return legseparate record
- Milwaukee Mitchell International (MKE) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- MKE to ORD, a related route68.4%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- MKE to DEN, a related route78.8%
- Republic Airways on-time record79.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. MKE to EWR and EWR to MKE 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.