Route reliability record
TPA→JFK
Tampa to New York
- Flights
- 2,307
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,005 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 4.2% 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 2,307 TPA to JFK flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 1,094 at 82.3% on time.
Best time to fly TPA to JFK: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Wednesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 93.7% of the time and Wednesday flights 83.1%, against 78.6% 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
78.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,201 completed flights
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
4.16%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
82.3% on time across 1,094 flights
These figures cover 2,307 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 TPA to JFK
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 82.3% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 74.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,116 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 97 | 85.3% | 48 min | 1.03% | A |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,094 | 82.3% | 81 min | 2.56% | B |
| JetBlue Airways | 1,116 | 74.4% | 75 min | 6.00% | C− |
JetBlue Airways cancels 6.0% 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 TPA 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 Tampa 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. 4 of the top 5 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. SRQ → EWRSarasota to Newark | United Airlines | 83.8% | 85.3% | 1.77% | 5am–8am, Fri | UA 2612 12:15 |
| 2. TPA → LGATampa to New York | American Airlines | 80.3% | 82.4% | 2.49% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 3. TPA → JFKTampa to New York | Delta Air Lines | 80.2% | 82.3% | 2.56% | 5am–8am, Wed | DL 2475 07:16 |
| 4. TPA → EWRTampa to Newark | United Airlines | 77.8% | 79.4% | 2.06% | 5am–8am, Wed | — |
| 5. TPA → LGATampa to New York | Delta Air Lines | 70.2% | 72.8% | 3.54% | 8am–11am, Wed | DL 2723 07:00 |
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 42 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am634 flights93.7%
- 8am–11am255 flights88.6%
- 11am–2pm505 flights81.5%
- 2pm–5pm262 flights68.0%
- 5pm–8pm507 flights64.0%
- 8pm–5am144 flights51.4%
Scale runs 45% to 100%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 51.4% on time, against 93.7% for the 5am–8am 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 634 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter TPA 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 TPA to JFK, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 93.7% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 51.4%, a wide gap of 42.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am93.7%
- 8–11am88.6%
- 11am–2pm81.5%
- 2–5pm68.0%
- 5–8pm64.0%
- 8pm–5am51.4%
best all US flightsScale 45% to 100%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 32 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.
July is the worst month at 62.8% on time, 32 points below September, the best at 95.0%. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 217 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 83.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 72.3%, a spread of 11 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 36,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%National Airspace System
- 24%Carrier
- 1%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 36,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 38 to one. The split is drawn from 35,969 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 93.7% on time here.
Cancellations run at 4.16%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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.
The 1,005 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 76.1% on time across 2,310 flights, within 3 points 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 2,307 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 4.16% 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. 2,201 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
TPA to JFK questions
How often is TPA 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 21.4% of the 2,307 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 TPA to JFK?
Delta Air Lines leads at 82.3% on time across 1,094 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 74.4%, a gap of 8 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 TPA to JFK?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.7% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 51.4%, 42 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 July delays on TPA to JFK?
July is the weakest month at 62.8% on time, compared with 95.0% in September. Across the year that is 32 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 TPA — the return legseparate record
- Tampa International (TPA) delay statistics
- John F. Kennedy International (JFK) delay statistics
- Delta Air Lines on TPA to JFK82.3%
- JetBlue Airways on TPA to JFK74.4%
- TPA to ATL, a related route79.6%
- LAX to JFK, a related route77.5%
- TPA to ORD, a related route72.9%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record85.3%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record82.3%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record74.4%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. TPA to JFK and JFK to TPA 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.