Metro area · New York
Which New York airport should you fly from?
LGA, EWR, and JFK compared on 1,195,723 departures, July 2023 – July 2026: how often flights arrive on time, how often they are cancelled, how long they taxi, and how all of it changes with the time of day. Add a destination to compare the routes each airport flies there.
Enter an airport code. You get the route from each of LGA, EWR, JFK to it, side by side. The suggestions are places at least two of these airports fly to.
What stands out in the New York area
Each line is worked out from the figures below. A lead is claimed only where it is larger than chance.
- On-time arrivalLGA had the best on-time arrival rate, 78.3%, ahead of EWR at 77.7%, JFK at 77.0%. Best to worst is 1.3 points.
- CancellationsLGA cancelled 3.30% of its flights, 1.3 times the rate at JFK (2.51%).
- Taxi timeTaxi-out averages 27.3 min at JFK and 24.5 min at LGA, 2.8 minutes more between pushback and wheels-up. Coming in, taxi time runs from 8.2 min at LGA to 11.5 min at JFK.
- Time of dayLGA is clearly ahead in 4 of 6 departure windows (5–9 AM, 9 AM–12 PM, 6–9 PM, and 9 PM–5 AM); in the other 2 no airport leads clearly. The gap is widest for departures at 5–9 AM (LGA 88.7% against JFK 85.4%) and narrowest at 12–3 PM (1.6 points).
- Hour by hourThe biggest swing through the day is at EWR: 5 AM–6 AM reached 89.3% on time (6,518 flights) and 10 PM–11 PM fell to 63.9% (4,254), 25.4 points apart.
- AirlinesUnited Airlines flies 54% of departures from EWR, more than any other carrier at any airport here. The largest carrier at each: United Airlines at EWR (54%), Republic Airways at LGA (32%), and JetBlue at JFK (32%). Carriers with 500 or more departures at only one of them: Southwest Airlines at LGA, Envoy Air and Allegiant Air at EWR, and Hawaiian Airlines at JFK.
- Destinations83 destinations outside the metro area get 750 or more flights from these airports; 65 of them from at least two and 34 from every airport. LGA alone serves 12 destinations (8% of its departures), including Chicago (MDW), Dallas (DAL), and Houston (HOU).
- Same destinationsOn the 34 destinations every airport serves, on-time arrival runs from 76.6% at JFK to 77.5% at EWR: 0.9 points, narrower than the 1.3 points over all their flights, so part of the overall gap comes from where each airport flies; no airport leads clearly. LGA, first on all its flights at 78.3%, is at 77.5% here.
LGA, EWR, and JFK side by side
Every flight that left each airport, July 2023 – July 2026. The same measures as the compare tool, so a figure here is the figure there.
LGA is clearly ahead of the rest on 3 of 4 rates, JFK on 1.
| Metric | LGA | EWR | JFK |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-time arrival | 78.3% (best) | 77.7% | 77.0% |
| Cancellation rate | 3.30% | 2.85% | 2.51% (best) |
| Severe delay (60+ min) | 9.0% (best) | 9.2% | 9.2% |
| Average arrival delay | 5 min (best) | 7 min | 6 min |
| Median arrival delay | -10 min (best) | -9 min | -9 min |
| Departure on-time | 79.6% (best) | 78.8% | 78.7% |
| Flights analyzed | 456,467 | 387,621 | 351,635 |
A check mark and green mark the best figure in a row (higher for on-time rates, lower for delays and cancellations) when it is clearly better than every other airport’s: a two-proportion test on each airport’s flight count, at about 95% confidence. Otherwise the row says “too close to call” and a “≈” marks the airports that cannot be told apart from the best figure. Average and median delay carry no sample-error estimate here, so they are marked by the printed figure alone.
Share of the metro is each airport’s part of the 1,195,723 departures at these 3 airports. Taxi-out is pushback to wheels-up on departure and taxi-in is touchdown to gate on arrival, averaged over all flights. The score is the FlyerIntel Reliability Score, 0 to 100.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Departing flights only.
By departure time
On-time arrival for flights leaving in each part of the day, at each airport.
| Leaving | LGA | EWR | JFK | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 88.7% (best)96,194 flights | 87.1%91,240 flights | 85.4%82,823 flights | 3.3 pts |
| 9 AM–12 PM | 83.8% (best)87,678 flights | 82.4%69,767 flights | 81.6%61,266 flights | 2.2 pts |
| 12–3 PM · too close to call | 78.7% (too close to call with the best)83,810 flights | 79.0% (too close to call with the best)58,564 flights | 77.4%52,675 flights | 1.6 pts |
| 3–6 PM · too close to call | 70.4%87,878 flights | 72.7% (too close to call with the best)72,579 flights | 72.9% (too close to call with the best)70,197 flights | 2.5 pts |
| 6–9 PM | 69.2% (best)81,558 flights | 67.6%71,243 flights | 68.2%57,789 flights | 1.6 pts |
| 9 PM–5 AM | 71.9% (best)19,349 flights | 68.9%24,228 flights | 68.8%26,885 flights | 3.1 pts |
A window needs at least 120 flights at an airport to be scored. The check mark uses the same test as the table above. Gap is best minus worst among the scored airports.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Windows are the scheduled local departure time at each airport.
Best and worst hour
On-time arrival by scheduled departure hour, for the hours with enough flights to score.
| Airport | Best hour | Worst hour | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|
| LGA18 hours scored | 5 AM–6 AM91.9% · 1,556 flights | 10 PM–11 PM67.6% · 2,721 flights | 24.3 pts |
| EWR19 hours scored | 5 AM–6 AM89.3% · 6,518 flights | 10 PM–11 PM63.9% · 4,254 flights | 25.4 pts |
| JFK19 hours scored | 5 AM–6 AM87.2% · 2,732 flights | 8 PM–9 PM67.4% · 18,214 flights | 19.8 pts |
LGA
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 91.9% on time from 1,556 flights
- 6 AM: 91.1% on time from 32,995 flights
- 7 AM: 87.4% on time from 32,544 flights
- 8 AM: 87.3% on time from 29,099 flights
- 9 AM: 85.1% on time from 31,853 flights
- 10 AM: 84.1% on time from 26,659 flights
- 11 AM: 82.0% on time from 29,166 flights
- 12 PM: 81.9% on time from 27,622 flights
- 1 PM: 79.4% on time from 26,724 flights
- 2 PM: 75.2% on time from 29,464 flights
- 3 PM: 71.1% on time from 32,203 flights
- 4 PM: 69.6% on time from 26,041 flights
- 5 PM: 70.2% on time from 29,634 flights
- 6 PM: 69.5% on time from 29,293 flights
- 7 PM: 68.8% on time from 27,638 flights
- 8 PM: 69.4% on time from 24,627 flights
- 9 PM: 72.6% on time from 16,537 flights
- 10 PM: 67.6% on time from 2,721 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
EWR
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 89.3% on time from 6,518 flights
- 6 AM: 89.2% on time from 31,762 flights
- 7 AM: 86.4% on time from 30,783 flights
- 8 AM: 84.2% on time from 22,177 flights
- 9 AM: 83.2% on time from 25,521 flights
- 10 AM: 82.3% on time from 23,655 flights
- 11 AM: 81.6% on time from 20,591 flights
- 12 PM: 81.4% on time from 14,907 flights
- 1 PM: 80.0% on time from 20,226 flights
- 2 PM: 76.5% on time from 23,431 flights
- 3 PM: 74.3% on time from 23,662 flights
- 4 PM: 73.7% on time from 25,934 flights
- 5 PM: 69.9% on time from 22,983 flights
- 6 PM: 68.9% on time from 24,541 flights
- 7 PM: 66.9% on time from 25,058 flights
- 8 PM: 66.9% on time from 21,644 flights
- 9 PM: 69.9% on time from 19,817 flights
- 10 PM: 63.9% on time from 4,254 flights
- 11 PM: 64.3% on time from 157 flights
JFK
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 87.2% on time from 2,732 flights
- 6 AM: 87.0% on time from 21,099 flights
- 7 AM: 85.9% on time from 28,461 flights
- 8 AM: 83.6% on time from 30,531 flights
- 9 AM: 81.7% on time from 25,535 flights
- 10 AM: 80.4% on time from 11,977 flights
- 11 AM: 82.2% on time from 23,754 flights
- 12 PM: 82.4% on time from 15,883 flights
- 1 PM: 75.3% on time from 17,235 flights
- 2 PM: 75.2% on time from 19,557 flights
- 3 PM: 73.8% on time from 25,963 flights
- 4 PM: 74.7% on time from 20,836 flights
- 5 PM: 70.3% on time from 23,398 flights
- 6 PM: 67.9% on time from 18,053 flights
- 7 PM: 69.2% on time from 21,522 flights
- 8 PM: 67.4% on time from 18,214 flights
- 9 PM: 68.4% on time from 17,239 flights
- 10 PM: 69.2% on time from 9,201 flights
- 11 PM: 77.5% on time from 445 flights
Each chart has its own scale, so read the numbers in the table, not the bar heights, when comparing airports. The best and worst of 24 hours are the two extremes, so a small airport’s best hour is partly luck; the flight count is beside each. A swing under 3 points, or one the two hours’ flight counts cannot separate from chance, is marked as within noise.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Hours are the scheduled local departure hour. An hour needs at least 120 flights to be scored.
Where each airport is strongest
Where it is clearly better than every other airport here, where it flies, and who flies there.
LGA New York
Clearly best on on-time arrival, severe delays, and departure on-time. Clearly ahead for departures at 5–9 AM, 9 AM–12 PM, 6–9 PM, and 9 PM–5 AM.
Busiest destinations
| To | A day | Share |
|---|---|---|
| ORD Chicago | 30.1 | 7.4% |
| ATL Atlanta | 21.8 | 5.4% |
| BOS Boston | 20.4 | 5.0% |
| DFW Dallas–Fort Worth | 17.9 | 4.4% |
| MIA Miami | 15.9 | 3.9% |
| MCO Orlando | 14.2 | 3.5% |
62 destinations with 750 or more flights carry 97% of its departures. 12 of them are served by no other airport here (8% of departures), the largest Chicago (MDW), Dallas (DAL), and Houston (HOU).
Airlines
| Airline | Share | On time |
|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 32% | 80.3% |
| Delta Air Lines | 19% | 77.3% |
| American Airlines | 11% | 75.4% |
| Endeavor Air | 11% | 84.2% |
| Southwest Airlines | 8.0% | 75.7% |
With 500 or more departures only here: Southwest Airlines.
EWR Newark
No rate on which it is clearly better than every other airport here. Not clearly ahead in any departure window.
Busiest destinations
| To | A day | Share |
|---|---|---|
| MCO Orlando | 18.2 | 5.3% |
| ATL Atlanta | 16.6 | 4.8% |
| ORD Chicago | 16.4 | 4.8% |
| LAX Los Angeles | 14.5 | 4.2% |
| FLL Fort Lauderdale | 13.7 | 4.0% |
| SFO San Francisco | 11.6 | 3.4% |
66 destinations with 750 or more flights carry 98% of its departures. 4 of them are served by no other airport here (1% of departures), the largest Burlington (BTV), Bozeman (BZN), and Sacramento (SMF).
Airlines
| Airline | Share | On time |
|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 54% | 76.5% |
| Republic Airways | 19% | 84.7% |
| Spirit Airlines | 7.2% | 74.2% |
| American Airlines | 5.3% | 78.1% |
| Delta Air Lines | 5.2% | 77.1% |
United Airlines flies 54% of departures, over the 50% that makes an airport that carrier’s. With 500 or more departures only here: Envoy Air and Allegiant Air.
JFK New York
Clearly best on cancellations. Not clearly ahead in any departure window.
Busiest destinations
| To | A day | Share |
|---|---|---|
| LAX Los Angeles | 27.6 | 8.9% |
| SFO San Francisco | 18.5 | 5.9% |
| BOS Boston | 15.3 | 4.9% |
| MIA Miami | 14.1 | 4.5% |
| MCO Orlando | 13.2 | 4.2% |
| ATL Atlanta | 10.6 | 3.4% |
54 destinations with 750 or more flights carry 96% of its departures. 2 of them are served by no other airport here (1% of departures), the largest Honolulu (HNL) and Burbank (BUR).
Airlines
| Airline | Share | On time |
|---|---|---|
| JetBlue | 32% | 70.4% |
| Delta Air Lines | 27% | 79.3% |
| Republic Airways | 14% | 81.7% |
| American Airlines | 13% | 80.9% |
| Endeavor Air | 7.5% | 83.6% |
With 500 or more departures only here: Hawaiian Airlines.
Airlines are the operating carrier, so a regional airline flying for a larger one is listed under its own name. Only airlines with at least 500 departures at an airport are listed there.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
Holding the destination or the airline still
Two ways to take one reason for a gap out of the comparison.
Destinations every airport serves
34 places get 750 or more flights from each of LGA, EWR, and JFK. Counting only flights to those places (76% of LGA’s, 68% of EWR’s, and 59% of JFK’s departures):
| Measure | LGA | EWR | JFK |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-time arrival · too close to call | 77.5% | 77.5% | 76.6% |
| Cancellation rate · too close to call | 3.18% | 2.96% | 2.99% |
| Severe delay (60+ min) · too close to call | 9.5% | 9.4% | 9.7% |
| Flights | 349,047 | 261,881 | 206,860 |
The shared places: Atlanta (ATL), Nashville (BNA), Boston (BOS), Buffalo (BUF), Charleston (CHS), Cleveland (CLE), Charlotte (CLT), Columbus (CMH), Cincinnati / Covington (CVG), Washington (DCA), Denver (DEN), Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW), Detroit (DTW), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), and 20 more.
The same airline at different airports
Where one airline flies from several of these airports, its own on-time rate at each. The airline is the same, so a gap is not about who flies, though the routes each flies from an airport still differ.
| Airline | LGA | EWR | JFK |
|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 80.3%147,710 flights | 84.7% (best)72,715 flights | 81.7%50,331 flights |
| United Airlines | 78.3% (best)26,351 flights | 76.5%210,528 flights | — |
| Delta Air Lines | 77.3%86,426 flights | 77.1%20,272 flights | 79.3% (best)93,774 flights |
| JetBlue | 72.1%24,312 flights | 73.1% (best)16,926 flights | 70.4%112,463 flights |
| American Airlines | 75.4%52,440 flights | 78.1%20,443 flights | 80.9% (best)45,081 flights |
| Endeavor Air | 84.2% (best)49,270 flights | 76.3%2,475 flights | 83.6%26,387 flights |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Same test as above. A dash means the airline has fewer than 500 departures at that airport.
What these figures do not compare
Reasons two airports can differ that have nothing to do with how well either is run.
- Different airlines. Republic Airways flies 32% of LGA’s departures; United Airlines flies 54% of EWR’s departures; JetBlue flies 32% of JFK’s departures. An airline brings its own schedule, aircraft and habits to an airport, so part of every gap above is a gap between carriers.
- Different destinations. 8% of LGA’s departures, 1% of EWR’s departures, and 1% of JFK’s departures go to places no other airport here serves. An on-time arrival is counted at the far end, so weather and congestion at the destination are in the figure.
- Different trip lengths. The average route, weighted by flights, is 776 miles from LGA, 1,118 miles from EWR, and 1,292 miles from JFK. Short regional hops and long coast-to-coast flights fail in different ways.
- Ground time belongs to the airport. Taxi-out and the share of flights that push back on time measure the airport itself. On-time arrival measures the whole trip.
- Airports left out. Westchester County Airport (HPN), Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP), and New York Stewart International Airport (SWF) are in the same city market but not among the airports FlyerIntel covers, so they are not compared.
- History, not a forecast. These are flights from July 2023 – July 2026. A storm cancels hundreds of flights together, so a clear gap is a statement about this sample, not a promise about your trip.
Analysis last recomputed
How the metro areas are chosen and what a lead means: how this works. All figures are from the methodology the airport pages use.
Other metro areas
- Chicago (ORD, MDW)
- Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW, DAL)
- Los Angeles (LAX, SNA, BUR, ONT)
- Washington (DCA, BWI, IAD)
- San Francisco (SFO, SJC, OAK)
- Miami (MIA, FLL)
- Houston (IAH, HOU)