Route reliability record
SLC→JFK
Salt Lake City to New York
- Flights
- 1,932
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,990 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route lands a B, 4 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 1,932 SLC to JFK flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,539 at 83.2% on time.
Best time to fly SLC to JFK: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 97.4% of the time and Wednesday flights 84.6%, against 81.3% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 4 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 40 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
81.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,860 completed flights
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.59%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
83.2% on time across 1,539 flights
These figures cover 1,932 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 13 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on SLC to JFK
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 83.2% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 73.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 393 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,539 | 83.2% | 66 min | 1.95% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 393 | 73.9% | 88 min | 5.09% | C− |
JetBlue Airways 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.
Flight by flight
Flights on SLC to JFK
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 Salt Lake City 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. SLC → JFKSalt Lake City to New York | Delta Air Lines | 81.6% | 83.2% | 1.95% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 705 23:59 |
| 2. SLC → EWRSalt Lake City to Newark | Delta Air Lines | 79.5% | 81.6% | 2.63% | 8pm–5am, Tue | DL 2038 23:38 |
| 3. SLC → EWRSalt Lake City to Newark | United Airlines | 76.6% | 78.4% | 2.28% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 4. SLC → JFKSalt Lake City to New York | JetBlue Airways | 70.1% | 73.9% | 5.09% | 8pm–5am, Mon | — |
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 21 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am78 flights97.4%
- 8am–11am365 flights84.0%
- 11am–2pm97 flights77.4%
- 2pm–5pm329 flights76.4%
- 5pm–8pm368 flights80.4%
- 8pm–5am695 flights81.5%
Scale runs 70% to 100%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 97.4% of the time, against 76.4% for the afternoon window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 695 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter SLC 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 SLC to JFK, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 97.4% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 76.4%, a wide gap of 21.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am97.4%
- 8–11am84.0%
- 11am–2pm77.4%
- 2–5pm76.4%
- 5–8pm80.4%
- 8pm–5am81.5%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 26 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 65.1% on time, 26 points below September, the best at 91.3%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 197 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 84.6% on time and Thursday the weakest at 77.7%, a spread of 7 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 43% of the 25,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Carrier
- 31%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 11,000 of the 25,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 25,035 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 97.4% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.59%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 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
7.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,990 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 76.4% on time across 1,929 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 1,932 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 calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 91.3% on time and August 65.1%, a swing of 26 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 1,860 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SLC to JFK questions
How often is SLC to JFK delayed?
About one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 18.7% of the 1,932 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 SLC to JFK?
Delta Air Lines leads at 83.2% on time across 1,539 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 73.9%, a gap of 9 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 SLC to JFK?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 97.4% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 76.4%, 21 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 SLC to JFK?
August is the weakest month at 65.1% on time, compared with 91.3% in September. Across the year that is 26 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 SLC — the return legseparate record
- Salt Lake City International (SLC) delay statistics
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on SLC to JFK83.2%
- JetBlue Airways on SLC to JFK73.9%
- SLC to DEN, a related route79.0%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- SLC to PHX, a related route83.5%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record83.2%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record73.9%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. SLC to JFK and JFK to SLC 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.