Route reliability record
SJU→EWR
San Juan to Newark
- Flights
- 2,077
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,608 mi
- Carriers
- 4
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.3% 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 C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 2,077 SJU to EWR flights, of which United Airlines flew 1,113 at 77.4% on time.
Best time to fly SJU to EWR: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 86.8% of the time and Wednesday flights 79.1%, against 74.6% 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
74.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,994 completed flights
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.27%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
77.4% on time across 1,113 flights
These figures cover 2,077 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.0% 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 SJU to EWR
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 77.4% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 71.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 685 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 153 | 77.6% | 66 min | 3.27% | B− |
| United Airlines | 1,113 | 77.4% | 104 min | 2.79% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 685 | 71.3% | 73 min | 3.07% | C− |
| Spirit Airlinesthin sample | 126 | 63.2% | 80 min | 8.73% | D− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 3.1% 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.
Flight by flight
Flights on SJU to EWR
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 San Juan 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. 2 of the top 4 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SJU → JFKSan Juan to New York | Delta Air Lines | 85.6% | 87.7% | 2.36% | 5am–8am, Fri | DL 1854 07:00 |
| 2. SJU → EWRSan Juan to Newark | United Airlines | 75.2% | 77.4% | 2.79% | 5pm–8pm, Wed | UA 2036 18:45 |
| 3. SJU → EWRSan Juan to Newark | JetBlue Airways | 69.1% | 71.3% | 3.07% | 8am–11am, Sat | — |
| 4. SJU → JFKSan Juan to New York | JetBlue Airways | 68.9% | 72.4% | 4.84% | 8am–11am, Thu | B6 1604 14:25 |
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 20 points, against 6 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am307 flights83.7%
- 8am–11am39 flights86.8%
- 11am–2pm280 flights66.4%
- 2pm–5pm318 flights66.9%
- 5pm–8pm698 flights74.7%
- 8pm–5am435 flights77.6%
Scale runs 60% to 90%.
The weak window here is the middle of the day, not the evening: 11am–2pm runs 66.4% on time against 86.8% for 8am–11am. That shape usually means a departure bank rather than an accumulating delay, so the recovery later in the afternoon is real rather than noise. The 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 698 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SJU 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 SJU to EWR, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 86.8% on time and the worst is 11am–2pm at 66.4%, a wide gap of 20.4 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am83.7%
- 8–11am86.8%
- 11am–2pm66.4%
- 2–5pm66.9%
- 5–8pm74.7%
- 8pm–5am77.6%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 22 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 63.7% on time, 22 points below May, the best at 85.8%. 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. January was the busiest month here, with 217 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 79.1% on time and Monday the weakest at 68.4%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 57% of the 45,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 57%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 12%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
57% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 45,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 26 to one. The split is drawn from 44,590 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 86.8% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.27%, 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
10.0% 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 1,608 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 69.9% on time across 2,078 flights, 5 points below 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 5 points of difference.
The sample behind these figures is 2,077 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 3.27% 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. 1,994 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SJU to EWR questions
How often is SJU 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 25.4% of the 2,077 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SJU to EWR?
United Airlines leads at 77.4% on time across 1,113 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 71.3%, a gap of 6 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 SJU to EWR?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 86.8% on time. The 11am–2pm window is the weakest at 66.4%, 20 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 SJU to EWR?
August is the weakest month at 63.7% on time, compared with 85.8% in May. Across the year that is 22 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 SJU — the return legseparate record
- Luis Munoz Marin International (SJU) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Frontier Airlines on SJU to EWR77.6%
- United Airlines on SJU to EWR77.4%
- JetBlue Airways on SJU to EWR71.3%
- Spirit Airlines on SJU to EWR63.2%
- SJU to MCO, a related route78.0%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- SJU to JFK, a related route77.8%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record77.6%
- United Airlines on-time record77.4%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record71.3%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. SJU to EWR and EWR to SJU 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.