Carrier route record
UARDU→EWR
United Airlines · Raleigh to Newark
- Flights
- 1,517
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 77%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on RDU to EWR sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land close to two hours behind schedule. That rests on 1,517 flights, with a median arrival 9 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, 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
75.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,482 completed flights
Avg delay
100 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.24%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
74.9%
Every carrier on RDU to EWR, 1,975 flights
These figures cover 1,517 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.2% 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 RDU to EWR
United flew 1,517 of the 1,975 flights on RDU to EWR, most of the route. Its 75.9% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 74.9%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 86.1% to Spirit at 54.1%. 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 | 239 | 86.1% | 50 min | 3.35% | A− |
| United Airlines (this page) | 1,517 | 75.9% | 100 min | 2.24% | B |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 219 | 54.1% | 82 min | 10.50% | F− |
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 41 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am387 flights92.1%
- 8am–11am211 flights90.7%
- 11am–2pm261 flights83.7%
- 2pm–5pm338 flights67.0%
- 5pm–8pm293 flights50.7%
- 8pm–5am27 flights—
Scale runs 40% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 50.7% 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 387 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 82.2% on time and Thursday the weakest at 70.2%. 12 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 57% of the 36,000 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.
- 57%National Airspace System
- 24%Late-arriving aircraft
- 14%Carrier
- 4%Extreme weather
57% 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 21,000 minutes out of 36,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 35,807 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.24% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.07%.
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. 12.2% 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.
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 76.3% on time across 1,515 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.
The sample behind these figures is 1,517 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. 1,482 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 EWR86.1%
- Spirit Airlines on RDU to EWR54.1%
- 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 7.04 million flight records
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
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.