Route reliability record
ORF→EWR
Norfolk to Newark
- Flights
- 867
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 284 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 6.3% 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 867 ORF to EWR flights, with a median arrival 14 minutes early.
Best time to fly ORF to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.5% of the time and Tuesday flights 90.8%, against 82.5% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 5 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 52 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
82.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 811 completed flights
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
6.34%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
80.8% on time across 707 flights
These figures cover 867 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 14 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.
Fare search by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on ORF 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlinesthin sample | 160 | 89.7% | 37 min | 3.12% | A− |
| Republic Airways | 707 | 80.8% | 95 min | 7.07% | B− |
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 Norfolk 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. 2 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. ORF → EWRNorfolk to Newark | Republic Airways | 75.1% | 80.8% | 7.07% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 2. ORF → JFKNorfolk to New York | Republic Airways | 72.4% | 79.2% | 8.62% | 5am–8am, Mon | YX 4359 17:32 |
| 3. ORF → LGANorfolk to New York | Republic Airways | 69.7% | 74.3% | 6.18% | 8am–11am, Tue | YX 4621 12:50 |
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 24 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am359 flights90.5%
- 8am–11am88 flights90.4%
- 11am–2pm185 flights80.2%
- 2pm–5pm2 flights—
- 5pm–8pm190 flights66.7%
- 8pm–5am43 flights71.4%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.5% of the time, against 66.7% for the evening 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 359 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ORF 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 ORF to EWR, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.5% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 66.7%, a wide gap of 23.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.5%
- 8–11am90.4%
- 11am–2pm80.2%
- 2–5pm—
- 5–8pm66.7%
- 8pm–5am71.4%
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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 97.0% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 112 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 90.8% on time and Monday the weakest at 77.7%, a spread of 13 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 13,000 reported delay minutes.
- 35%Carrier
- 35%National Airspace System
- 27%Late-arriving aircraft
- 3%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,412 of the 13,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 12,521 reported delay minutes.
35% 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 4,349 minutes out of 13,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 6.34%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about 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
6.5% 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.
At 284 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 5am–8am window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 80.3% on time across 867 flights, within 2 points 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. 867 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 6.34% 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. 811 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ORF to EWR questions
How often is ORF to EWR delayed?
About one flight in six arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 17.5% of the 867 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is ORF to EWR compared with the rest of the country?
82.5% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 5 points in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ORF to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 66.7%, 24 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 October delays on ORF to EWR?
October is the weakest month at 71.6% on time, compared with 97.0% in September. 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 ORF — the return legseparate record
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- United Airlines on ORF to EWR89.7%
- Republic Airways on ORF to EWR80.8%
- ORF to ATL, a related route85.1%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- ORF to CLT, a related route81.3%
- United Airlines on-time record89.7%
- Republic Airways on-time record80.8%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. ORF to EWR and EWR to ORF are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Embed ORF to EWR’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.