Metro area · New York
Which New York airport should you fly from?
LGA, EWR, and JFK compared on 1,225,830 departures, July 2023 – August 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.
Flying to Honolulu (HNL)
Nonstop flights from this metro area to Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
LGA has no flights to HNL in the data.
EWR to HNL has not been flown recently, so it is left out.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026 · Each route is measured over its own period. Departures from JFK only.
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, 78.1%, ahead of EWR at 77.5%, JFK at 76.7%. Best to worst is 1.4 points.
- CancellationsLGA cancelled 3.38% of its flights, 1.3 times the rate at JFK (2.61%).
- Taxi timeTaxi-out averages 27.4 min at JFK and 24.6 min at LGA, 2.9 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 88.6% against JFK 85.1%) and narrowest at 6–9 PM (1.5 points).
- Hour by hourThe biggest swing through the day is at EWR: 5 AM–6 AM reached 89.3% on time (6,638 flights) and 10 PM–11 PM fell to 63.7% (4,299), 25.6 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 (33%), 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.
- Destinations84 destinations outside the metro area get 750 or more flights from these airports; 65 of them from at least two and 33 from every airport. LGA alone serves 12 destinations (8% of its departures), including Chicago (MDW), Dallas (DAL), and Houston (HOU).
- Same destinationsOn the 33 destinations every airport serves, on-time arrival runs from 76.4% at JFK to 77.4% at EWR: 1.0 points, narrower than the 1.4 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 78.1%, is at 77.2% here.
LGA, EWR, and JFK side by side
Every flight that left each airport, July 2023 – August 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 | 78.1% (best) | 77.5% | 76.7% |
| Cancellation rate | 3.38% | 2.90% | 2.61% (best) |
| Severe delay (60+ min) | 9.2% (best) | 9.3% | 9.4% |
| Average arrival delay | 6 min (best) | 7 min | 7 min |
| Median arrival delay | -10 min (best) | -9 min | -9 min |
| Departure on-time | 79.4% (best) | 78.7% | 78.4% |
| Flights analyzed | 467,462 | 397,593 | 360,775 |
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 1,225,830 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 – August 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 | 88.6% (best)98,609 flights | 87.0%93,603 flights | 85.1%85,164 flights | 3.5 pts |
| 9 AM–12 PM | 83.6% (best)89,664 flights | 82.3%71,601 flights | 81.4%62,683 flights | 2.2 pts |
| 12–3 PM · too close to call | 78.5% (too close to call with the best)85,840 flights | 78.8% (too close to call with the best)60,079 flights | 77.2%53,926 flights | 1.6 pts |
| 3–6 PM · too close to call | 70.0%90,068 flights | 72.4% (too close to call with the best)74,362 flights | 72.6% (too close to call with the best)72,070 flights | 2.6 pts |
| 6–9 PM | 68.9% (best)83,536 flights | 67.4%73,114 flights | 67.8%59,271 flights | 1.5 pts |
| 9 PM–5 AM | 71.7% (best)19,745 flights | 68.7%24,834 flights | 68.4%27,661 flights | 3.3 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 – August 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 PM67.1% · 2,777 flights | 24.8 pts |
| EWR19 hours scored | 5 AM–6 AM89.3% · 6,638 flights | 10 PM–11 PM63.7% · 4,299 flights | 25.6 pts |
| JFK19 hours scored | 5 AM–6 AM87.3% · 2,850 flights | 8 PM–9 PM66.9% · 18,673 flights | 20.4 pts |
LGA
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 91.9% on time from 1,556 flights
- 6 AM: 91.0% on time from 33,768 flights
- 7 AM: 87.2% on time from 33,535 flights
- 8 AM: 87.2% on time from 29,750 flights
- 9 AM: 85.0% on time from 32,453 flights
- 10 AM: 83.9% on time from 27,330 flights
- 11 AM: 81.9% on time from 29,881 flights
- 12 PM: 81.8% on time from 28,230 flights
- 1 PM: 79.1% on time from 27,384 flights
- 2 PM: 74.8% on time from 30,226 flights
- 3 PM: 70.7% on time from 33,016 flights
- 4 PM: 69.2% on time from 26,668 flights
- 5 PM: 69.9% on time from 30,384 flights
- 6 PM: 69.1% on time from 30,021 flights
- 7 PM: 68.5% on time from 28,276 flights
- 8 PM: 69.1% on time from 25,239 flights
- 9 PM: 72.4% on time from 16,877 flights
- 10 PM: 67.1% on time from 2,777 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 6,638 flights
- 6 AM: 89.2% on time from 32,473 flights
- 7 AM: 86.3% on time from 31,694 flights
- 8 AM: 84.2% on time from 22,798 flights
- 9 AM: 83.1% on time from 26,182 flights
- 10 AM: 82.2% on time from 24,274 flights
- 11 AM: 81.5% on time from 21,145 flights
- 12 PM: 81.4% on time from 15,197 flights
- 1 PM: 79.8% on time from 20,884 flights
- 2 PM: 76.2% on time from 23,998 flights
- 3 PM: 74.0% on time from 24,274 flights
- 4 PM: 73.4% on time from 26,608 flights
- 5 PM: 69.7% on time from 23,480 flights
- 6 PM: 68.6% on time from 25,216 flights
- 7 PM: 66.7% on time from 25,559 flights
- 8 PM: 66.7% on time from 22,339 flights
- 9 PM: 69.8% on time from 20,378 flights
- 10 PM: 63.7% on time from 4,299 flights
- 11 PM: 64.3% on time from 157 flights
JFK
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 87.3% on time from 2,850 flights
- 6 AM: 86.9% on time from 21,671 flights
- 7 AM: 85.7% on time from 29,263 flights
- 8 AM: 83.2% on time from 31,380 flights
- 9 AM: 81.5% on time from 25,953 flights
- 10 AM: 80.2% on time from 12,290 flights
- 11 AM: 81.9% on time from 24,440 flights
- 12 PM: 82.1% on time from 16,175 flights
- 1 PM: 75.2% on time from 17,713 flights
- 2 PM: 74.9% on time from 20,038 flights
- 3 PM: 73.4% on time from 26,695 flights
- 4 PM: 74.4% on time from 21,261 flights
- 5 PM: 70.0% on time from 24,114 flights
- 6 PM: 67.4% on time from 18,482 flights
- 7 PM: 69.0% on time from 22,116 flights
- 8 PM: 66.9% on time from 18,673 flights
- 9 PM: 68.0% on time from 17,742 flights
- 10 PM: 68.8% on time from 9,474 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 – August 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 from LGA
| To | A day | Share |
|---|---|---|
| ORD Chicago | 30.2 | 7.5% |
| ATL Atlanta | 21.9 | 5.4% |
| BOS Boston | 20.4 | 5.1% |
| DFW Dallas–Fort Worth | 17.9 | 4.4% |
| MIA Miami | 15.9 | 3.9% |
| MCO Orlando | 14.1 | 3.5% |
61 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).
Largest airlines at LGA
| Airline | Share | On time |
|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 33% | 80.1% |
| Delta Air Lines | 19% | 77.1% |
| American Airlines | 12% | 75.1% |
| Endeavor Air | 11% | 84.2% |
| Southwest Airlines | 8.0% | 75.2% |
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 from EWR
| To | A day | Share |
|---|---|---|
| MCO Orlando | 18.0 | 5.3% |
| ATL Atlanta | 16.6 | 4.8% |
| ORD Chicago | 16.4 | 4.8% |
| LAX Los Angeles | 14.4 | 4.2% |
| FLL Fort Lauderdale | 13.6 | 3.9% |
| 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), Key West (EYW), and Bozeman (BZN).
Largest airlines at EWR
| Airline | Share | On time |
|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 54% | 76.3% |
| Republic Airways | 19% | 84.6% |
| Spirit Airlines | 7.0% | 74.2% |
| American Airlines | 5.3% | 78.0% |
| Delta Air Lines | 5.2% | 77.0% |
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 from JFK
| To | A day | Share |
|---|---|---|
| LAX Los Angeles | 27.7 | 8.9% |
| SFO San Francisco | 18.5 | 5.9% |
| BOS Boston | 15.3 | 4.9% |
| MIA Miami | 14.0 | 4.5% |
| MCO Orlando | 13.2 | 4.2% |
| ATL Atlanta | 10.7 | 3.4% |
55 destinations with 750 or more flights carry 96% of its departures. 3 of them are served by no other airport here (1% of departures), the largest Honolulu (HNL), Burbank (BUR), and Ontario (ONT).
Largest airlines at JFK
| Airline | Share | On time |
|---|---|---|
| JetBlue | 32% | 70.0% |
| Delta Air Lines | 27% | 79.0% |
| Republic Airways | 14% | 81.5% |
| American Airlines | 13% | 80.6% |
| Endeavor Air | 7.3% | 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 – August 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
33 places get 750 or more flights from each of LGA, EWR, and JFK. Counting only flights to those places (76% of LGA’s, 67% of EWR’s, and 58% of JFK’s departures):
| Measure | LGA | EWR | JFK |
|---|---|---|---|
| On-time arrival · too close to call | 77.2% | 77.4% | 76.4% |
| Cancellation rate · too close to call | 3.26% | 3.00% | 3.10% |
| Severe delay (60+ min) · too close to call | 9.7% | 9.6% | 9.9% |
| Flights | 355,730 | 266,762 | 208,579 |
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 19 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 | 80.1%152,311 flights | 84.6% (best)74,943 flights | 81.5%51,542 flights |
| United Airlines | 77.9% (best)27,188 flights | 76.3%216,250 flights | — |
| Delta Air Lines | 77.1%88,819 flights | 77.0%20,848 flights | 79.0% (best)96,378 flights |
| JetBlue | 71.9%24,702 flights | 72.8% (best)17,329 flights | 70.0%115,935 flights |
| American Airlines | 75.1%54,046 flights | 78.0%21,076 flights | 80.6% (best)46,533 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 – August 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 33% 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 775 miles from LGA, 1,120 miles from EWR, and 1,304 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 – August 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)