Route profile
EWR→SLC
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Newark to Salt Lake City, 1,969 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 29% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,948 flights. How this is calculated
EWR → SLC arrives on time 77.2% of the time; the return trip, SLC → EWR, arrives on time 76.2% of the time.
EWR → SLC spends 33.0 minutes on the ground on a 1,969-mile trip: 25.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at EWR and 7.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at SLC.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where EWR to SLC differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
EWR to SLC struggles most at 6 AM: 75.2% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 14.6 points behind the 89.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 15.6 points.
EWR to SLC is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 10 AM: 88.4% arrive on time, 9.2 points ahead of the 79.2% those routes manage at that hour.
In November, EWR to SLC runs 9.8 points below routes of similar length, 73.9% on time to 83.7%. Against all other routes the gap is 9.5 points.
September is kinder to EWR to SLC than to routes of similar length: 87.8% on time against 82.9%, 4.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5.4 points.
Delta Air Lines’ flights on EWR to SLC arrive on time 75.1% of the time, 6.6 points below the 81.7% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 6.4 points.
EWR to SLC against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 AM departures | 75.2% | routes of similar length | 89.8% | −14.6 pts | 137 here, 69,305 there |
| Hour: 10 AM departures | 88.4% | routes of similar length | 79.2% | +9.2 pts | 129 here, 66,432 there |
| Month: November | 73.9% | routes of similar length | 83.7% | −9.8 pts | 253 here, 83,516 there |
| Month: September | 87.8% | routes of similar length | 82.9% | +4.9 pts | 262 here, 86,715 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 75.1% | routes of similar length | 81.7% | −6.6 pts | 2,149 here, 289,294 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 1,969 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 → SLC flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
EWR → SLC cancelled 64 of 3,948 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 62. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 54.7% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 113 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 64 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, 54.7% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
23 cancellations, 35.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
6 cancellations, 9.4% 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.
64 coded cancellations were recorded on EWR → SLC; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
54 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 3,948 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SLC after arriving from EWR.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.9% | 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 1.62% of the time and diverts 0.13% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,879 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 3,948 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
EWR → SLC flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 85.8% of the time, against 70.9% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 14.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 75.2% on time from 138 flights
- 7 AM: 83.3% on time from 1,479 flights
- 8 AM: 89.5% on time from 136 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 88.4% on time from 129 flights
- 11 AM: 82.2% on time from 138 flights
- 12 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 72.0% on time from 122 flights
- 6 PM: 71.6% on time from 900 flights
- 7 PM: 69.3% on time from 408 flights
- 8 PM: 71.1% on time from 269 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why EWR → SLC 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for EWR → SLC. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on EWR → SLC, at 36.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 85.8% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 70.9%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 2,189 | 75.1% | 1.74% | -2 min | 10.2% |
| United Airlines | 1,697 | 79.6% | 1.47% | -8 min | 7.6% |
Delta Air Lines flew 56.3% of the 3,886 flights listed.
United Airlines arrived on time 4.5 percentage points more often than Delta Air Lines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL1009 Delta Air Lines | 7:00 AM | 841 | 78.3% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 6.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 77.5%
- Feb: 75.3%
- Mar: 79.2%
- Apr: 79.7%
- May: 78.5%
- Jun: 74.0%
- Jul: 68.9%
- Aug: 80.1%
- Sep: 87.8%
- Oct: 78.8%
- Nov: 73.9%
- Dec: 74.5%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 18.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (119)
- August 2023: 82.1% from 124 flights
- September 2023: too few flights to score (93)
- October 2023: too few flights to score (92)
- November 2023: too few flights to score (87)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (101)
- January 2024: 79.7% from 124 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- March 2024: 85.1% from 148 flights
- April 2024: 84.6% from 120 flights
- May 2024: too few flights to score (92)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (91)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (83)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (82)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (79)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (97)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (119)
- February 2025: 63.3% from 128 flights
- March 2025: 81.0% from 169 flights
- April 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (91)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (92)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (92)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (88)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (105)
- January 2026: 77.2% from 142 flights
- February 2026: 79.1% from 139 flights
- March 2026: 72.1% from 167 flights
- April 2026: too few flights to score (115)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (102)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (114)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (91)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.8% against 72.3% in the 12 months before — improving by 5.5 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,948 EWR → SLC 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