Route profile
EWR→ILM
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Newark to Wilmington. · 488 miles
Right now
Current conditions at both ends of this route.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Weather conditions are strongly associated with delays and cancellations.
Airport conditions describe the airfield, not any individual flight. An airport operating normally is not a guarantee that a specific flight will depart on time.
Route reliability
July 2023 – June 2026
Better than 54% of comparable major US routes (4,577 compared)
Calculated from 882 flights. How this is calculated
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – June 2026
Best time to fly
On-time arrival rate by scheduled local departure time.
EWR → ILM flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 91.4% of the time, against 82.0% for 9 PM–5 AM departures — a gap of 9.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026 · Buckets with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why EWR → ILM runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this route.
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding, fuelling — within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for EWR → ILM. A single late flight can carry more than one cause, and only delays of fifteen minutes or more are attributed at all.
A route inherits the problems of both ends and of the aircraft flying it. A large share attributed to late-arriving aircraft usually means the departure sits late in a busy rotation rather than that anything about this city pair is difficult, which is why the same route often performs very differently at different times of day.
Airlines on this route
Performance by the carrier that actually operated the flight.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 882 | 85.3% | 4.99% | -12 min | 4.7% |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026 · Carriers with fewer than 200 flights on this route are not listed.
Other ways to fly New York to Wilmington
Airport pairs serving the same journey, grouped by the DOT's own city-market definition. They do not perform the same way.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LGA→ILM New York to Wilmington | 4,029 | 80.8% | 4.86% | -11 min | 58 |
| EWR→ILM this route Newark to Wilmington | 882 | 85.3% | 4.99% | -12 min | 68 |
EWR → ILM is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 85.3% on time, against 80.8% for LGA → ILM.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026 · Grouped by DOT city market, which places Newark with the New York airports and Baltimore with the Washington ones.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 11.6 percentage points.
Historical trend
On-time arrival rate by month.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026
Data and methodology
All figures on this page are calculated by FlyerIntel from 882 EWR → ILM flight records published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – June 2026. A flight is counted as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after its scheduled arrival time, following BTS methodology. Cancelled and diverted flights have no arrival time and are excluded from on-time rates rather than counted as late.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
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