Route reliability record
MSP→LGA
Minneapolis to New York
- Flights
- 1,813
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,020 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 1,813 MSP to LGA flights, with a median arrival 8 minutes early.
Best time to fly MSP to LGA: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.8% of the time and Wednesday flights 83.3%, against 78.8% 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
78.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,748 completed flights
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.92%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
78.8% on time across 1,809 flights
These figures cover 1,813 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 8 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 MSP 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 Airwaysthin sample | 4 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,809 | 78.8% | 67 min | 2.93% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on MSP to LGA
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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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Minneapolis to New York
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. 3 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. MSP → EWRMinneapolis to Newark | Republic Airways | 79.0% | 84.4% | 6.44% | 5am–8am, Mon | — |
| 2. MSP → LGAMinneapolis to New York | Delta Air Lines | 76.5% | 78.8% | 2.93% | 5am–8am, Wed (route) | DL 2719 07:00 |
| 3. MSP → EWRMinneapolis to Newark | United Airlines | 75.7% | 78.4% | 3.43% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 4. MSP → EWRMinneapolis to Newark | Delta Air Lines | 74.6% | 78.1% | 4.44% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 2864 07:10 |
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 16 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am313 flights87.8%
- 8am–11am368 flights82.9%
- 11am–2pm308 flights77.0%
- 2pm–5pm420 flights72.0%
- 5pm–8pm42 flights87.5%
- 8pm–5am362 flights75.4%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.8% of the time, against 72.0% for the afternoon window. That is 16 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 420 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MSP 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 MSP to LGA, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 87.8% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 72.0%, a wide gap of 15.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am87.8%
- 8–11am82.9%
- 11am–2pm77.0%
- 2–5pm72.0%
- 5–8pm87.5%
- 8pm–5am75.4%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 28 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 61.4% on time, against 89.8% in February. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 176 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.1%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 50% of the 25,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%National Airspace System
- 41%Carrier
- 7%Late-arriving aircraft
- 2%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 41%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 10,000 of the 25,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 24,591 reported delay minutes.
50% 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 12,000 minutes out of 25,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 2.92%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 30 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,020 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 81.6% on time across 1,815 flights, within 3 points 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 1,813 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.
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 2.92% 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. 1,748 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MSP to LGA questions
How often is MSP to LGA 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 21.2% of the 1,813 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is MSP to LGA compared with the rest of the country?
78.8% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 2 points in its favour. That is worth a B on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MSP to LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.8% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 72.0%, 16 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 MSP to LGA?
December is the weakest month at 61.4% on time, compared with 89.8% in February. Across the year that is 28 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 MSP — the return legseparate record
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- MSP to ORD, a related route70.0%
- ORD to LGA, a related route66.6%
- MSP to DEN, a related route77.8%
- Republic Airways on-time record100.0%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record78.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. MSP to LGA and LGA to MSP 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.