Route reliability record
RSW→JFK
Fort Myers to New York
- Flights
- 1,279
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,074 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.1% 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 1,279 RSW to JFK flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 472 at 80.4% on time.
Best time to fly RSW to JFK: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.6% of the time and Wednesday flights 86.6%, against 77.3% 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
77.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,210 completed flights
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.08%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
80.4% on time across 472 flights
These figures cover 1,279 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.7% 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 RSW to JFK
The two carriers here are closely matched: 5 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 472 | 80.4% | 73 min | 5.08% | B− |
| JetBlue Airways | 807 | 75.4% | 80 min | 5.08% | B− |
Delta Air Lines cancels 5.1% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Fort Myers 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. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. RSW → EWRFort Myers to Newark | United Airlines | 80.0% | 81.7% | 2.04% | 5am–8am, Wed | UA 2477 15:25 |
| 2. RSW → JFKFort Myers to New York | Delta Air Lines | 76.3% | 80.4% | 5.08% | 8pm–5am, Wed | — |
| 3. RSW → JFKFort Myers to New York | JetBlue Airways | 71.6% | 75.4% | 5.08% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 4. RSW → LGAFort Myers to New York | Delta Air Lines | 67.2% | 70.6% | 4.78% | 8am–11am, Sat | DL 379 11:11 |
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 29 points, against 5 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am214 flights90.6%
- 8am–11am95 flights79.3%
- 11am–2pm623 flights78.9%
- 2pm–5pm123 flights61.2%
- 5pm–8pm128 flights65.8%
- 8pm–5am96 flights70.7%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.6% of the time, against 61.2% for the afternoon window. That is 29 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 623 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter RSW to JFK 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 RSW to JFK, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.6% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 61.2%, a wide gap of 29.4 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.6%
- 8–11am79.3%
- 11am–2pm78.9%
- 2–5pm61.2%
- 5–8pm65.8%
- 8pm–5am70.7%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 23 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.
August is the worst month at 67.9% on time, 23 points below May, the best at 91.0%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. February was the busiest month here, with 135 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.6% on time and Monday the weakest at 70.5%, a spread of 16 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 21,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 30%National Airspace System
- 21%Carrier
- 5%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 21,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. The split is drawn from 21,457 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 90.6% on time here.
Cancellations run at 5.08%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in twenty 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
9.7% 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.
The 1,074 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 77.8% on time across 1,281 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 1,279 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 JFK after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.08% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over 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. 1,210 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
RSW to JFK questions
How often is RSW to JFK delayed?
Roughly 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 22.7% of the 1,279 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on RSW to JFK?
Delta Air Lines leads at 80.4% on time across 472 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 75.4%, a gap of 5 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on RSW to JFK?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.6% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 61.2%, 29 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 August delays on RSW to JFK?
August is the weakest month at 67.9% on time, compared with 91.0% in May. Across the year that is 23 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
- JFK to RSW — the return legseparate record
- Southwest Florida International (RSW) delay statistics
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on RSW to JFK80.4%
- JetBlue Airways on RSW to JFK75.4%
- RSW to ORD, a related route76.4%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- RSW to ATL, a related route85.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record80.4%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record75.4%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. RSW to JFK and JFK to RSW 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.