Carrier route record
DLMSP→EWR
Delta Air Lines · Minneapolis to Newark
- Flights
- 1,240
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 56%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Delta Air Lines.
Delta on MSP to EWR carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.4% 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 1,240 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Republic Airways, flew 481 at 84.4% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate Delta on MSP to EWR from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
78.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,176 completed flights
Avg delay
68 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.44%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
79.5%
Every carrier on MSP to EWR, 2,225 flights
These figures cover 1,240 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Delta against every carrier on MSP to EWR
Delta flew 1,240 of the 2,225 flights on MSP to EWR, most of the route. Its 78.1% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 79.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 84.4% to SkyWest at 77.8%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 84.4% of the time; United Airlines manages 78.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 495 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 481 | 84.4% | 67 min | 6.44% | B− |
| United Airlines | 495 | 78.4% | 100 min | 3.43% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 1,240 | 78.1% | 68 min | 4.44% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 9 | 77.8% | 32 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Republic Airways cancels 6.4% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Flight by flight
Delta flight numbers on MSP to EWR
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Departure window
When Delta runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 24 points, against 6 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am339 flights89.7%
- 8am–11am189 flights82.1%
- 11am–2pm97 flights85.9%
- 2pm–5pm263 flights65.3%
- 5pm–8pm58 flights80.4%
- 8pm–5am294 flights69.8%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.7% of the time, against 65.3% for the afternoon window. That is 24 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 339 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Delta on MSP to EWR through the year
December is the weak month at 61.5% on time, against 91.8% 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. October was the busiest month here, with 119 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 85.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.7%, a spread of 13 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late Delta on MSP to EWR runs when it is late
Delta on MSP to EWR often beats the schedule: 420 of 1,176 completed flights, 36%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 258 late arrivals split 77 under half an hour, 68 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 113 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early420 flights35.7%
- Within 15 min498 flights42.3%
- 15–29 min late77 flights6.5%
- 30–59 min late68 flights5.8%
- 1–2 hours late79 flights6.7%
- 2+ hours late34 flights2.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,176 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
39 of 251 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 16% of them. 46 flights left on time and still arrived late.
The worst days
Worst days for Delta on MSP to EWR
The latest arrival of the period was on 30 November 2025, 11 hours 55 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as national airspace system delay.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 30 November 2025 | 11 hours 55 minutes | Carrier |
| 9 July 2026 | 5 hours 28 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 24 October 2025 | 5 hours 15 minutes | Carrier |
| 7 December 2025 | 4 hours 22 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 4 July 2026 | 3 hours 56 minutes | National Airspace System |
Delay causes
Why Delta runs late on this route
National Airspace System accounts for 43% of the 17,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%National Airspace System
- 42%Carrier
- 11%Late-arriving aircraft
- 4%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 42%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 7,245 of the 17,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 17,436 reported delay minutes.
43% 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 7,571 minutes out of 17,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 4.44%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 25 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 costs
9.6% 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 1,008 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 79.0% on time across 1,240 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.
The sample behind these figures is 1,240 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.
What to do with this
Booking Delta on MSP to EWR
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.44% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 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. 1,176 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MSP to EWR, every carrier
- Delta on EWR to MSP, the return leg
- Republic Airways on MSP to EWR84.4%
- United Airlines on MSP to EWR78.4%
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.