Carrier route record
UARDU→EWR
United Airlines · Raleigh to Newark
- Flights
- 1,543
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 77%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on RDU to EWR lands a B, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 1,543 flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate United on RDU 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
77.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,509 completed flights
Avg delay
118 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.07%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
76.5%
Every carrier on RDU to EWR, 1,993 flights
These figures cover 1,543 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.5% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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
United against every carrier on RDU to EWR
United flew 1,543 of the 1,993 flights on RDU to EWR, most of the route. Its 77.0% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 76.5%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 86.4% to Spirit at 56.2%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
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 (this page) | 1,543 | 77.0% | 118 min | 2.07% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 179 | 56.2% | 76 min | 10.61% | D− |
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.
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 36 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am428 flights92.1%
- 8am–11am190 flights89.2%
- 11am–2pm269 flights83.8%
- 2pm–5pm337 flights66.8%
- 5pm–8pm292 flights56.2%
- 8pm–5am27 flights—
Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 56.2% on time, against 92.1% 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 428 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on RDU to EWR through the year
April is the best month on the calendar at 92.4% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. November was the busiest month here, with 160 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 71.6%, a spread of 10 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late United on RDU to EWR runs when it is late
United on RDU to EWR often beats the schedule: 576 of 1,509 completed flights, 38%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. When United on RDU to EWR is late it tends to be very late: 174 of its 347 late arrivals were an hour or more behind, and 96 were two hours or more.
- 15+ min early576 flights38.2%
- Within 15 min586 flights38.8%
- 15–29 min late105 flights7.0%
- 30–59 min late68 flights4.5%
- 1–2 hours late78 flights5.2%
- 2+ hours late96 flights6.4%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,509 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 297 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 34 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 84 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at EWR.
The worst days
Worst days for United on RDU to EWR
The latest arrival of the period was on 4 July 2026, 20 hours 36 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). Three of the five worst days fell in July 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 4 July 2026 | 20 hours 36 minutes | Carrier |
| 7 August 2026 | 20 hours | Extreme weather |
| 28 July 2026 | 19 hours 20 minutes | Carrier |
| 18 July 2026 | 17 hours 39 minutes | Carrier |
| 6 August 2026 | 17 hours 27 minutes | Carrier |
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
National Airspace System accounts for 48% of the 41,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 48%National Airspace System
- 21%Carrier
- 21%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%Extreme weather
48% 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 19,000 minutes out of 41,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 40,795 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.07% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.13%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
11.5% 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 74.2% on time across 1,541 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 1,543 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 United on RDU to EWR
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. April runs 92.4% on time and October 58.7%, a swing of 34 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of October before you think about anything else. 1,509 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- RDU to EWR, every carrier
- United on EWR to RDU, the return leg
- Republic Airways on RDU to EWR86.4%
- Spirit Airlines on RDU to EWR56.2%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Raleigh-Durham International (RDU) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
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.