Route profile
EWR→ILM
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Newark to Wilmington, 488 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 49% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 943 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
EWR → ILM arrives on time 84.0% of the time; the return trip, ILM → EWR, arrives on time 84.2% of the time.
EWR → ILM spends 28.9 minutes on the ground on a 488-mile trip: 23.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at EWR and 5.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at ILM.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Unlike most, it barely matters what time you fly this route, a steadier spread than 91% of 4,023 comparable routes.
89.4% on time for 9 AM–12 PM departures, against 80.4% for 9 PM–5 AM, a narrow gap either way.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where EWR to ILM differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
EWR to ILM is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 81.2% arrive on time, 13 points ahead of the 68.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.7 points.
EWR to ILM holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 85.6% on time to their 77.4%, a 8.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.8 points.
EWR to ILM against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 81.2% | routes of similar length | 68.2% | +13.0 pts | 382 here, 52,180 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 85.6% | routes of similar length | 77.4% | +8.2 pts | 125 here, 219,482 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 488 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 EWR → ILM flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
EWR → ILM cancelled 53 of 943 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 18. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 66.0% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 27 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 53 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.
35 cancellations, 66.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
17 cancellations, 32.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
1 cancellation, 1.9% 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.
53 coded cancellations were recorded on EWR → ILM; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
29 min late
against a median of 12 min early
Percentiles over 943 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ILM after arriving from EWR.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 29% | High risk |
| 45 min | 15% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.9% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 2.9% | 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 5.62% of the time and diverts 0.32% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 887 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 29 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 943 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
EWR → ILM flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 89.4% of the time, against 80.4% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 9.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 90.4% on time from 168 flights
- 12 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 81.2% on time from 423 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why EWR → ILM 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for EWR → ILM. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on EWR → ILM, at 49.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 89.4% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 80.4%.
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 | 943 | 84.0% | 5.62% | -12 min | 5.2% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Monday the least, a gap of 9.3 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-05 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.9% against 86.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 6.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 943 EWR → ILM 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