Route reliability record
TPA→LGA
Tampa to New York
- Flights
- 2,841
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 1,010 mi
- Carriers
- 5
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% 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 2,841 flights, of which American Airlines flew 690 at 78.5% on time.
American Airlines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 78.5% on time across 690 flights.
Key figures
On time
72.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,725 completed flights
Avg delay
90 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.31%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
American
78.5% on time across 690 flights
These figures cover 2,841 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on TPA to LGA
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 78.5% of the time; JetBlue Airways manages 64.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 478 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines | 690 | 78.5% | 122 min | 3.04% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,666 | 72.8% | 84 min | 3.30% | C− |
| JetBlue Airways | 478 | 64.5% | 79 min | 3.77% | D− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 4 | 50.0% | 40 min | 0.00% | F+ |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 3 | 33.3% | 49 min | 0.00% | F+ |
JetBlue Airways cancels 3.8% 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.
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 32 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am596 flights89.5%
- 8am–11am239 flights75.2%
- 11am–2pm742 flights77.4%
- 2pm–5pm459 flights68.4%
- 5pm–8pm540 flights57.1%
- 8pm–5am265 flights58.3%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 57.1% on time, against 89.5% 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 742 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 35 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 53.7% on time, 35 points below September, the best at 88.8%. 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. December was the busiest month here, with 281 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 77.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 63.9%. 14 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 46% of the 67,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%National Airspace System
- 25%Carrier
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 67,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 67,118 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 89.5% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.31%, against 1.81% 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
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 1,010 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg runs 71.0% on time across 2,840 flights, within 2 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 2,841 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.
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.31% 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. 2,725 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
TPA to LGA questions
How often is TPA to LGA delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 27.3% of the 2,841 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on TPA to LGA?
American Airlines leads at 78.5% on time across 690 flights. JetBlue Airways is at the other end on 64.5%, a gap of 14 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 LGA?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.5% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 57.1%, 32 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 LGA?
July is the weakest month at 53.7% on time, compared with 88.8% in September. Across the year that is 35 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 TPA — the return legseparate record
- Tampa International (TPA) delay statistics
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- American Airlines on-time record78.5%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record72.8%
- JetBlue Airways on-time record64.5%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
Direction matters. TPA to LGA and LGA to TPA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.