Route reliability record
STL→EWR
St. Louis to Newark
- Flights
- 1,075
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 872 mi
- Carriers
- 2
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 5.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about four flights in five 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 1,075 STL to EWR flights, with a median arrival 13 minutes early.
Best time to fly STL to EWR: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.9% of the time and Wednesday flights 86.3%, against 81.4% 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 41 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
81.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,010 completed flights
Avg delay
92 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.49%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
83.3% on time across 868 flights
These figures cover 1,075 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 STL to EWR
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 Airways | 868 | 83.3% | 93 min | 5.99% | B− |
| United Airlinesthin sample | 207 | 73.7% | 90 min | 3.38% | C− |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly St. Louis 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 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. STL → EWRSt. Louis to Newark | Republic Airways | 78.3% | 83.3% | 5.99% | 5am–8am, Fri | — |
| 2. STL → LGASt. Louis to New York | Republic Airways | 75.8% | 79.6% | 4.76% | 8am–11am, Wed | — |
| 3. STL → LGASt. Louis to New York | Southwest Airlines | 67.1% | 69.2% | 3.08% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
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 half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am380 flights90.9%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm359 flights79.1%
- 2pm–5pm53 flights80.0%
- 5pm–8pm283 flights71.3%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.9% of the time, against 71.3% for the evening window. That is 20 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 380 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter STL 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 STL to EWR, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 90.9% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 71.3%, a wide gap of 19.6 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am90.9%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm79.1%
- 2–5pm80.0%
- 5–8pm71.3%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 33 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.
May is the best month on the calendar at 93.3% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. September was the busiest month here, with 106 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 86.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.4%, a spread of 10 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 17,000 reported delay minutes.
- 42%Late-arriving aircraft
- 40%National Airspace System
- 15%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
42% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 17,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 12 to one. The split is drawn from 17,243 reported delay minutes.
40% 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 6,820 minutes out of 17,000, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations run at 5.49%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly 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
7.9% 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 an hour and a half, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 872 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 82.8% on time across 1,074 flights, within about a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 1,075 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 EWR after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.49% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; 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. 1,010 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
STL to EWR questions
How often is STL to EWR 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 18.6% of the 1,075 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
How reliable is STL to EWR compared with the rest of the country?
81.4% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 4 points in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on STL to EWR?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 90.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 71.3%, 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 October delays on STL to EWR?
October is the weakest month at 60.4% on time, compared with 93.3% in May. Across the year that is 33 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 STL — the return legseparate record
- St. Louis Lambert International (STL) delay statistics
- Newark Liberty International (EWR) delay statistics
- Republic Airways on STL to EWR83.3%
- United Airlines on STL to EWR73.7%
- STL to DEN, a related route75.0%
- MCO to EWR, a related route75.0%
- STL to ATL, a related route84.6%
- Republic Airways on-time record83.3%
- United Airlines on-time record73.7%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. STL to EWR and EWR to STL 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.