Route profile
EWR→MEM
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Newark to Memphis, 946 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 12% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,412 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
EWR → MEM arrives on time 77.3% of the time; the return trip, MEM → EWR, arrives on time 80.5% of the time, a 3.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
EWR → MEM spends 32.7 minutes on the ground on a 946-mile trip: 24.5 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at EWR and 8.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at MEM.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 97% of 5,368 comparable routes.
77.2% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-05 to 2026-07), against 77.4% in the 12 months before (2023-11 to 2024-12), virtually unchanged.
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 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where EWR to MEM differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
EWR to MEM is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 84.4% arrive on time, 7.9 points ahead of the 76.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.3 points.
May is kinder to EWR to MEM than to routes of similar length: 83.5% on time against 74.5%, 9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 8.3 points.
In July, EWR to MEM runs 7.7 points below routes of similar length, 60.8% on time to 68.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 8.9 points.
EWR to MEM against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 84.4% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | +7.9 pts | 384 here, 173,309 there |
| Month: May | 83.5% | routes of similar length | 74.5% | +9.0 pts | 133 here, 248,285 there |
| Month: July | 60.8% | routes of similar length | 68.5% | −7.7 pts | 204 here, 325,096 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 946 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 → MEM flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
EWR → MEM cancelled 71 of 1,412 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 20. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 57.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 34 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 71 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.
41 cancellations, 57.7% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
27 cancellations, 38.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
3 cancellations, 4.2% 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.
71 coded cancellations were recorded on EWR → MEM; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
54 min late
against a median of 11 min early
EWR → MEM has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 11 min early, but the worst tenth are 65 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.
Percentiles over 1,412 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MEM after arriving from EWR.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 9.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.8% | 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 5.03% of the time and diverts 0.00% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,341 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 54 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,412 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
EWR → MEM flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 86.4% of the time, against 68.0% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 18.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 84.4% on time from 391 flights
- 2 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 67.4% on time from 497 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why EWR → MEM runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for EWR → MEM. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on EWR → MEM, at 55.8%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 86.4% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 68.0%.
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 | 1,147 | 81.3% | 4.71% | -15 min | 7.3% |
| United Airlines | 265 | 59.3% | 6.42% | 4 min | 18.1% |
Republic Airways flew 81.2% of the 1,412 flights listed. United Airlines cancelled 6.42% of its flights here against 4.71% for Republic Airways.
Republic Airways arrived on time 22.0 percentage points more often than United Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 11.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-05 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.2% against 77.4% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,412 EWR → MEM 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