Route reliability record
RSW→LGA
Fort Myers to New York
- Flights
- 869
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,080 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.0% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 869 RSW to LGA flights, with a median arrival 5 minutes early.
Best time to fly RSW to LGA: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 81.2% of the time and Wednesday flights 77.9%, against 69.6% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 8 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 77 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
69.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 817 completed flights
Avg delay
97 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.95%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
70.6% on time across 669 flights
These figures cover 869 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 15.4% 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 RSW to LGA
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 669 | 70.6% | 104 min | 4.78% | C− |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 200 | 66.3% | 80 min | 5.50% | C− |
Flight by flight
Flights on RSW to LGA
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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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. 3 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 19 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am69 flights81.2%
- 11am–2pm270 flights77.8%
- 2pm–5pm231 flights65.7%
- 5pm–8pm212 flights61.9%
- 8pm–5am87 flights64.6%
Scale runs 55% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.9% on time, against 81.2% for the 8am–11am 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 270 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter RSW to LGA 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 LGA, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 81.2% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 61.9%, a wide gap of 19.3 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am81.2%
- 11am–2pm77.8%
- 2–5pm65.7%
- 5–8pm61.9%
- 8pm–5am64.6%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 36 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 90.0% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 92 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 77.9% on time and Monday the weakest at 58.6%, a spread of 19 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 50% of the 24,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%National Airspace System
- 16%Carrier
- 6%Extreme weather
50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 24,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 8 to one. The split is drawn from 24,166 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 81.2% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.95%, 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
15.4% 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.
The 1,080 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 73.3% on time across 869 flights, 4 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 4 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 869 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 LGA after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 4.95% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 817 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
RSW to LGA questions
How often is RSW to LGA delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 30.4% of the 869 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is RSW to LGA compared with the rest of the country?
69.6% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 8 points against it. That is worth a C− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on RSW to LGA?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 81.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 61.9%, 19 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 March delays on RSW to LGA?
March is the weakest month at 53.7% on time, compared with 90.0% in September. Across the year that is 36 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
- LGA to RSW — the return legseparate record
- Southwest Florida International (RSW) delay statistics
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on RSW to LGA70.6%
- American Airlines on RSW to LGA66.3%
- RSW to ORD, a related route76.4%
- ORD to LGA, a related route66.6%
- RSW to ATL, a related route85.4%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record70.6%
- American Airlines on-time record66.3%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. RSW to LGA and LGA 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.