Route profile
BUF→LGA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Buffalo to New York, 292 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 27% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,854 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
BUF → LGA arrives on time 83.1% of the time; the return trip, LGA → BUF, arrives on time 81.2% of the time.
BUF → LGA spends 25.7 minutes on the ground on a 292-mile trip: 17.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BUF and 8.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at LGA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where BUF to LGA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BUF to LGA is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 82.6% arrive on time, 9.3 points ahead of the 73.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.9 points.
BUF to LGA struggles most at 6 AM: 88.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 3.5 points behind the 91.5% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 2.8 points.
BUF to LGA holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 88.4% on time to their 82.1%, a 6.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 9.3 points.
April is kinder to BUF to LGA than to routes of similar length: 89.5% on time against 81.1%, 8.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.6 points.
In January, BUF to LGA runs 5.4 points below routes of similar length, 75.6% on time to 81.0%.
BUF to LGA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 82.6% | routes of similar length | 73.3% | +9.3 pts | 489 here, 48,085 there |
| Hour: 6 AM departures | 88.0% | routes of similar length | 91.5% | −3.5 pts | 1,274 here, 53,516 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 88.4% | routes of similar length | 82.1% | +6.3 pts | 456 here, 91,576 there |
| Month: April | 89.5% | routes of similar length | 81.1% | +8.4 pts | 420 here, 64,181 there |
| Month: January | 75.6% | routes of similar length | 81.0% | −5.4 pts | 356 here, 56,078 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 292 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why BUF → LGA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
BUF → LGA cancelled 255 of 5,854 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 23. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 43.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 53 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 255 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
111 cancellations, 43.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
107 cancellations, 42.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
37 cancellations, 14.5% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
255 coded cancellations were recorded on BUF → LGA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
37 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 5,854 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LGA after arriving from BUF.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 28% | High risk |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.1% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.5% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 4.36% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,589 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 37 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,854 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BUF → LGA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.5% of the time, against 71.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 17.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.6% on time from 162 flights
- 6 AM: 88.0% on time from 1,315 flights
- 7 AM: 88.3% on time from 248 flights
- 8 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 86.6% on time from 706 flights
- 11 AM: 83.3% on time from 523 flights
- 12 PM: 85.4% on time from 161 flights
- 1 PM: 81.3% on time from 266 flights
- 2 PM: 84.4% on time from 403 flights
- 3 PM: 82.1% on time from 223 flights
- 4 PM: 82.6% on time from 515 flights
- 5 PM: 74.3% on time from 475 flights
- 6 PM: 68.8% on time from 642 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why BUF → LGA runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BUF → LGA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on BUF → LGA, at 34.9%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 88.5% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 71.0%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 4,359 | 82.2% | 4.54% | -8 min | 7.3% |
| Endeavor Air | 1,360 | 87.0% | 3.97% | -16 min | 6.4% |
Republic Airways flew 76.2% of the 5,719 flights listed.
Endeavor Air arrived on time 4.8 percentage points more often than Republic Airways on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 7.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 75.6%
- Feb: 78.4%
- Mar: 82.4%
- Apr: 89.5%
- May: 82.7%
- Jun: 77.3%
- Jul: 75.4%
- Aug: 84.1%
- Sep: 90.6%
- Oct: 89.9%
- Nov: 89.0%
- Dec: 78.3%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 15.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 78.9% from 205 flights
- August 2023: 88.4% from 219 flights
- September 2023: 86.2% from 203 flights
- October 2023: 95.5% from 198 flights
- November 2023: 96.9% from 160 flights
- December 2023: 92.6% from 137 flights
- January 2024: 77.3% from 144 flights
- February 2024: 87.1% from 154 flights
- March 2024: 86.3% from 161 flights
- April 2024: 94.4% from 165 flights
- May 2024: 84.4% from 170 flights
- June 2024: 77.9% from 161 flights
- July 2024: 71.1% from 170 flights
- August 2024: 75.8% from 167 flights
- September 2024: 96.6% from 177 flights
- October 2024: 96.3% from 189 flights
- November 2024: 93.7% from 175 flights
- December 2024: 75.6% from 161 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (109)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (98)
- March 2025: 88.3% from 129 flights
- April 2025: 94.8% from 134 flights
- May 2025: 82.1% from 159 flights
- June 2025: 71.7% from 181 flights
- July 2025: 76.0% from 170 flights
- August 2025: 85.6% from 183 flights
- September 2025: 89.3% from 190 flights
- October 2025: 76.6% from 180 flights
- November 2025: 73.7% from 144 flights
- December 2025: 65.5% from 132 flights
- January 2026: 74.6% from 144 flights
- February 2026: 72.9% from 142 flights
- March 2026: 72.5% from 152 flights
- April 2026: 77.8% from 127 flights
- May 2026: 81.6% from 153 flights
- June 2026: too few flights to score (118)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (93)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 78.0% against 83.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,854 BUF → LGA flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed