Route profile
CLE→EWR
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Cleveland to Newark, 404 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 22% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,279 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
CLE → EWR arrives on time 81.6% of the time; the return trip, EWR → CLE, arrives on time 80.1% of the time.
CLE → EWR spends 27.9 minutes on the ground on a 404-mile trip: 17.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at CLE and 10.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at EWR.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 92% of 2,692 comparable routes.
United Airlines (82.1% on time) and Republic Airways (80.5%) are close together here.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where CLE to EWR differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
CLE to EWR struggles most at 6 PM: 56.4% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.8 points behind the 69.2% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.2 points.
CLE to EWR is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 83.7% arrive on time, 7.8 points ahead of the 75.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 9.1 points.
CLE to EWR holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 81.5% on time to their 77.5%, a 4 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 4.3 points.
March is kinder to CLE to EWR than to routes of similar length: 87.2% on time against 78.9%, 8.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9.3 points.
In November, CLE to EWR runs 4.3 points below routes of similar length, 79.4% on time to 83.7%. Against all other routes the gap is 4 points.
CLE to EWR against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 56.4% | routes of similar length | 69.2% | −12.8 pts | 218 here, 82,708 there |
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 83.7% | routes of similar length | 75.9% | +7.8 pts | 258 here, 77,375 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 81.5% | routes of similar length | 77.5% | +4.0 pts | 891 here, 216,367 there |
| Month: March | 87.2% | routes of similar length | 78.9% | +8.3 pts | 493 here, 114,812 there |
| Month: November | 79.4% | routes of similar length | 83.7% | −4.3 pts | 557 here, 115,671 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 404 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 CLE → EWR flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
CLE → EWR cancelled 213 of 6,279 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 29. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 67.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 44 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 213 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.
143 cancellations, 67.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
36 cancellations, 16.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
34 cancellations, 16.0% 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.
213 coded cancellations were recorded on CLE → EWR; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
47 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 6,279 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at EWR after arriving from CLE.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 29% | High risk |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.0% | Some 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 3.39% of the time and diverts 0.10% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,060 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 47 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,279 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
CLE → EWR flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 92.3% of the time, against 65.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 26.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 93.6% on time from 481 flights
- 7 AM: 90.9% on time from 746 flights
- 8 AM: 89.9% on time from 626 flights
- 9 AM: 92.9% on time from 360 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 89.6% on time from 257 flights
- 12 PM: 83.5% on time from 778 flights
- 1 PM: 76.6% on time from 400 flights
- 2 PM: 83.7% on time from 260 flights
- 3 PM: 72.3% on time from 363 flights
- 4 PM: 68.5% on time from 382 flights
- 5 PM: 74.8% on time from 649 flights
- 6 PM: 56.4% on time from 234 flights
- 7 PM: 69.2% on time from 629 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why CLE → EWR runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 CLE → EWR. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 4,391 | 82.1% | 2.51% | -11 min | 9.0% |
| Republic Airways | 1,888 | 80.5% | 5.46% | -11 min | 8.0% |
United Airlines flew 69.9% of the 6,279 flights listed. Republic Airways cancelled 5.46% of its flights here against 2.51% for United Airlines.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 87.1%
- Feb: 88.9%
- Mar: 87.2%
- Apr: 86.6%
- May: 77.6%
- Jun: 80.7%
- Jul: 67.0%
- Aug: 83.7%
- Sep: 83.3%
- Oct: 83.1%
- Nov: 79.4%
- Dec: 80.0%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 21.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 61.3% from 187 flights
- August 2023: 85.5% from 162 flights
- September 2023: 80.7% from 178 flights
- October 2023: 94.5% from 181 flights
- November 2023: 94.5% from 217 flights
- December 2023: 94.3% from 192 flights
- January 2024: 91.2% from 167 flights
- February 2024: 94.8% from 155 flights
- March 2024: 91.0% from 156 flights
- April 2024: 87.5% from 146 flights
- May 2024: 82.8% from 158 flights
- June 2024: 78.1% from 166 flights
- July 2024: 71.7% from 169 flights
- August 2024: 84.8% from 150 flights
- September 2024: 92.0% from 175 flights
- October 2024: 87.7% from 179 flights
- November 2024: 69.4% from 160 flights
- December 2024: 71.7% from 157 flights
- January 2025: 82.7% from 188 flights
- February 2025: 80.4% from 168 flights
- March 2025: 87.6% from 164 flights
- April 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- June 2025: 80.2% from 128 flights
- July 2025: 67.3% from 178 flights
- August 2025: 81.1% from 173 flights
- September 2025: 76.9% from 172 flights
- October 2025: 67.4% from 185 flights
- November 2025: 69.9% from 190 flights
- December 2025: 72.0% from 192 flights
- January 2026: 88.2% from 191 flights
- February 2026: 92.1% from 168 flights
- March 2026: 83.5% from 178 flights
- April 2026: 92.7% from 179 flights
- May 2026: 91.1% from 182 flights
- June 2026: 83.6% from 175 flights
- July 2026: 67.9% from 177 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.4% against 78.2% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,279 CLE → EWR 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