Route profile
EWR→RSW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Newark to Fort Myers, 1,068 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 30% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,219 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
EWR → RSW arrives on time 77.7% of the time; the return trip, RSW → EWR, arrives on time 79.1% of the time.
EWR → RSW spends 30.3 minutes on the ground on a 1,068-mile trip: 24.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at EWR and 5.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at RSW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where EWR to RSW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
EWR to RSW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 77.9% arrive on time, 10.4 points ahead of the 67.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.1 points.
EWR to RSW struggles most at 9 AM: 78.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5.3 points behind the 83.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.2 points.
June is kinder to EWR to RSW than to routes of similar length: 77.4% on time against 71.6%, 5.8 points better.
In July, EWR to RSW runs 5.5 points below routes of similar length, 62.6% on time to 68.1%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.1 points.
JetBlue does better on EWR to RSW than on its routes of similar length: 74.6% on time here, 70.2% there, 4.4 points apart.
EWR to RSW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 77.9% | routes of similar length | 67.5% | +10.4 pts | 140 here, 175,259 there |
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 78.1% | routes of similar length | 83.4% | −5.3 pts | 370 here, 142,946 there |
| Month: June | 77.4% | routes of similar length | 71.6% | +5.8 pts | 323 here, 230,570 there |
| Month: July | 62.6% | routes of similar length | 68.1% | −5.5 pts | 460 here, 312,762 there |
| Airline: JetBlue | 74.6% | routes of similar length | 70.2% | +4.4 pts | 1,040 here, 160,750 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 1,068 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 → RSW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
EWR → RSW cancelled 141 of 6,219 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 44. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 46.1% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 96 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 141 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.
65 cancellations, 46.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
44 cancellations, 31.2% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
32 cancellations, 22.7% 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.
141 coded cancellations were recorded on EWR → RSW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
52 min late
against a median of 9 min early
EWR → RSW has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 9 min early, but the worst tenth are 61 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 6,219 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at RSW after arriving from EWR.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 34% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 16% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.5% | 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 2.27% of the time and diverts 0.37% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,055 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 52 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,219 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
EWR → RSW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.1% of the time, against 69.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 20.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 92.4% on time from 322 flights
- 7 AM: 91.6% on time from 678 flights
- 8 AM: 83.1% on time from 454 flights
- 9 AM: 78.1% on time from 386 flights
- 10 AM: 82.2% on time from 312 flights
- 11 AM: 78.8% on time from 374 flights
- 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 71.6% on time from 493 flights
- 2 PM: 77.7% on time from 740 flights
- 3 PM: 72.9% on time from 345 flights
- 4 PM: 73.4% on time from 525 flights
- 5 PM: 77.9% on time from 142 flights
- 6 PM: 77.4% on time from 412 flights
- 7 PM: 63.3% on time from 461 flights
- 8 PM: 67.7% on time from 510 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why EWR → RSW 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 → RSW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on EWR → RSW, at 42.6%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.1% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 69.0%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 5,127 | 78.4% | 2.20% | -9 min | 8.7% |
| JetBlue | 1,072 | 74.6% | 2.43% | -6 min | 9.6% |
United Airlines flew 82.7% of the 6,199 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 3.8 percentage points more often than JetBlue 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 12.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 79.0%
- Feb: 82.5%
- Mar: 74.8%
- Apr: 81.9%
- May: 78.4%
- Jun: 77.4%
- Jul: 62.6%
- Aug: 76.0%
- Sep: 82.2%
- Oct: 83.1%
- Nov: 81.2%
- Dec: 73.0%
July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 20.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 45.3% from 155 flights
- August 2023: 71.7% from 130 flights
- September 2023: 75.0% from 124 flights
- October 2023: 89.9% from 189 flights
- November 2023: 91.9% from 161 flights
- December 2023: 82.8% from 208 flights
- January 2024: 75.8% from 214 flights
- February 2024: 87.6% from 198 flights
- March 2024: 70.9% from 190 flights
- April 2024: 79.8% from 202 flights
- May 2024: 78.0% from 182 flights
- June 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- August 2024: 73.7% from 121 flights
- September 2024: 91.4% from 120 flights
- October 2024: 87.9% from 134 flights
- November 2024: 77.3% from 181 flights
- December 2024: 57.1% from 222 flights
- January 2025: 79.0% from 226 flights
- February 2025: 78.2% from 206 flights
- March 2025: 75.7% from 215 flights
- April 2025: 80.7% from 225 flights
- May 2025: 69.2% from 160 flights
- June 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- July 2025: 81.8% from 123 flights
- August 2025: 82.6% from 124 flights
- September 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- October 2025: 71.1% from 162 flights
- November 2025: 76.0% from 205 flights
- December 2025: 80.2% from 206 flights
- January 2026: 82.5% from 180 flights
- February 2026: 82.1% from 185 flights
- March 2026: 77.1% from 229 flights
- April 2026: 85.1% from 210 flights
- May 2026: 86.9% from 175 flights
- June 2026: too few flights to score (100)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (92)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.3% against 76.7% in the 12 months before — improving by 2.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,219 EWR → RSW 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