Route reliability record
RDU→EWR
Raleigh to Newark
- Flights
- 1,993
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 416 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.2% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four 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 1,993 RDU to EWR flights, with a median arrival 10 minutes early.
Best time to fly RDU to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 92.2% of the time and Tuesday flights 79.0%, against 76.5% 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
76.5%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,927 completed flights
Avg delay
107 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.21%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
77.0% on time across 1,543 flights
These figures cover 1,993 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on RDU 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 271 | 86.4% | 67 min | 4.80% | A− |
| United Airlines | 1,543 | 77.0% | 118 min | 2.07% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 179 | 56.2% | 76 min | 10.61% | D− |
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Raleigh 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. 3 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. RDU → EWRRaleigh to Newark | United Airlines | 75.4% | 77.0% | 2.07% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 2. RDU → JFKRaleigh to New York | Republic Airways | 73.7% | 77.2% | 4.58% | 8am–11am, Fri | YX 4765 11:59 |
| 3. RDU → JFKRaleigh to New York | JetBlue Airways | 65.9% | 70.8% | 6.99% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 4. RDU → LGARaleigh to New York | Republic Airways | 64.9% | 69.5% | 6.57% | 8am–11am, Sat | — |
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 40 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am433 flights92.2%
- 8am–11am199 flights89.2%
- 11am–2pm411 flights85.5%
- 2pm–5pm372 flights66.8%
- 5pm–8pm516 flights60.6%
- 8pm–5am62 flights52.5%
Scale runs 45% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 52.5% on time, against 92.2% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 516 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter RDU 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 RDU to EWR, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 92.2% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 52.5%, a wide gap of 39.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am92.2%
- 8–11am89.2%
- 11am–2pm85.5%
- 2–5pm66.8%
- 5–8pm60.6%
- 8pm–5am52.5%
best all US flightsScale 45% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 32 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.
May is the best month on the calendar at 91.9% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. April was the busiest month here, with 197 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 79.0% on time and Thursday the weakest at 72.3%, a spread of 7 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 49% of the 48,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%National Airspace System
- 24%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%Carrier
- 9%Extreme weather
49% 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 24,000 minutes out of 48,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 48,475 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.21%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about 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
11.4% 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.
At 416 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 75.7% on time across 1,994 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 1,993 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 EWR after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.21% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; 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. 1,927 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
RDU to EWR questions
How often is RDU to EWR delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.5% of the 1,993 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is RDU to EWR compared with the rest of the country?
76.5% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about a point against it. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on RDU to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 92.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 52.5%, 40 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 RDU to EWR?
October is the weakest month at 60.4% on time, compared with 91.9% in May. Across the year that is 32 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 RDU — the return legseparate record
- Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on RDU to EWR86.4%
- United Airlines on RDU to EWR77.0%
- Spirit Airlines on RDU to EWR56.2%
- RDU to ATL, a related route86.5%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- RDU to ORD, a related route74.3%
- Republic Airways on-time record86.4%
- United Airlines on-time record77.0%
- Spirit Airlines on-time record56.2%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. RDU to EWR and EWR to RDU 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.