Route reliability record
MSN→LGA
Madison to New York
- Flights
- 930
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 812 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.7% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, more than 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 930 MSN to LGA flights, with a median arrival 13 minutes early.
Best time to fly MSN to LGA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.5% of the time and Wednesday flights 87.8%, against 84.9% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 8 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 76 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
84.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 869 completed flights
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.70%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
85.1% on time across 926 flights
These figures cover 930 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 MSN to LGA
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 | 926 | 85.1% | 70 min | 5.72% | A− |
| Delta Air Linesthin sample | 4 | 50.0% | 137 min | 0.00% | F+ |
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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 11 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am369 flights87.5%
- 8am–11am342 flights87.2%
- 11am–2pm16 flights—
- 2pm–5pm203 flights76.5%
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.5% of the time, against 76.5% for the afternoon 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 369 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MSN to LGA 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 MSN to LGA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 87.5% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 76.5%, a wide gap of 11.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am87.5%
- 8–11am87.2%
- 11am–2pm—
- 2–5pm76.5%
- 5–8pm—
- 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 19 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.
October is the best month on the calendar at 92.9% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 89 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 87.8% on time and Monday the weakest at 83.2%, a spread of 5 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 50% of the 9,246 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%Carrier
- 33%National Airspace System
- 11%Late-arriving aircraft
- 7%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 50%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,588 of the 9,246 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 9,246 reported delay minutes.
33% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 3,039 minutes out of 9,246, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 5.70%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
5.3% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 812 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 71.7% on time across 930 flights, 13 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 13 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 930 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 LGA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.70% 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. 869 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MSN to LGA questions
How often is MSN to LGA delayed?
About one flight in seven arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 15.1% of the 930 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
How reliable is MSN to LGA compared with the rest of the country?
84.9% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 8 points in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MSN to LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.5% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 76.5%, 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 March delays on MSN to LGA?
March is the weakest month at 74.0% on time, compared with 92.9% in October. Across the year that is 19 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
- LGA to MSN — the return legseparate record
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- MSN to ORD, a related route72.8%
- ORD to LGA, a related route66.6%
- MSN to DCA, a related route72.9%
- Republic Airways on-time record85.1%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record50.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. MSN to LGA and LGA to MSN 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.