Carrier route record
UAMSP→EWR
United Airlines · Minneapolis to Newark
- Flights
- 465
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 21%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on MSP to EWR sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land close to two hours behind schedule. That rests on 465 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Republic Airways, flew 474 at 84.4% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate United 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
73.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 455 completed flights
Avg delay
120 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.15%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
77.0%
Every carrier on MSP to EWR, 2,208 flights
These figures cover 465 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 14.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
United against every carrier on MSP to EWR
United flew 465 of the 2,208 flights on MSP to EWR, about 21% of it. Its 73.8% on time is 3 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 77.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 84.4% to United at 73.8%. 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; Delta Air Lines manages 75.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,260 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 474 | 84.4% | 68 min | 6.33% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 9 | 77.8% | 32 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,260 | 75.5% | 73 min | 3.97% | B− |
| United Airlines (this page) | 465 | 73.8% | 120 min | 2.15% | C |
Republic Airways cancels 6.3% 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.
Departure window
When United runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 42 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am158 flights91.0%
- 8am–11am34 flights82.4%
- 11am–2pm62 flights77.4%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm151 flights48.6%
- 8pm–5am60 flights81.7%
Scale runs 40% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 48.6% on time, against 91.0% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 158 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on MSP to EWR through the year
- Jul–Sep 2025220 flights73.8%
- Oct–Dec 2025125 flights67.2%
- Jan–Mar 20264 flights—
- Apr–Jun 2026116 flights81.7%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 73.8% on time across 465 flights.
United on MSP to EWR did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 81.7% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 67.2%, a swing of 15 points on roughly 155 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.9% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.7%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 54% of the 14,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 54%National Airspace System
- 21%Carrier
- 20%Late-arriving aircraft
- 6%Extreme weather
54% 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 7,624 minutes out of 14,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 14,239 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.15% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 14.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg runs 73.1% on time across 465 flights, within half 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. 465 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.
What to do with this
Booking United on MSP to EWR
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 465 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 73.8% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 455 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- MSP to EWR, every carrier
- United on EWR to MSP, the return leg
- Republic Airways on MSP to EWR84.4%
- Delta Air Lines on MSP to EWR75.5%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.