Route profile
IAD→JFK
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Washington to New York, 228 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 7% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,353 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
IAD → JFK arrives on time 72.9% of the time; the return trip, JFK → IAD, arrives on time 81.1% of the time, an 8.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair. IAD → JFK also cancels 3.33% of flights, against 1.55% for JFK → IAD.
IAD → JFK spends 38.2 minutes on the ground on a 228-mile trip: 26.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IAD and 12.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at JFK.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where IAD to JFK differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
IAD to JFK struggles most at 12 PM: 63.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 16.3 points behind the 79.6% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 16.1 points.
Saturday is the day IAD to JFK slips furthest against routes of similar length, 71.7% on time where they average 81.3%, 9.6 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 7.4 points.
SkyWest Airlines’ flights on IAD to JFK arrive on time 70.1% of the time, 6.1 points below the 76.2% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 11.2 points.
IAD to JFK against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 63.3% | routes of similar length | 79.6% | −16.3 pts | 346 here, 38,662 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 71.7% | routes of similar length | 81.3% | −9.6 pts | 187 here, 80,107 there |
| Airline: SkyWest Airlines | 70.1% | routes of similar length | 76.2% | −6.1 pts | 788 here, 54,822 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 228 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
62 min late
against a median of 5 min early
IAD → JFK has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 5 min early, but the worst tenth are 67 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 1,353 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at JFK after arriving from IAD.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 42% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 26% | High risk |
| 60 min | 18% | High risk |
| 90 min | 10% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 6.5% | 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 3.33% 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 1,308 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 62 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,353 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
IAD → JFK flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 85.7% of the time, against 63.9% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 21.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 85.7% on time from 276 flights
- 12 PM: 63.3% on time from 354 flights
- 1 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 74.7% on time from 164 flights
- 5 PM: 68.6% on time from 382 flights
- 6 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why IAD → JFK runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
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
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for IAD → JFK. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 822 | 70.1% | 4.14% | -2 min | 12.3% |
| Endeavor Air | 351 | 85.3% | 0.85% | -15 min | 6.3% |
SkyWest Airlines flew 70.1% of the 1,173 flights listed. SkyWest Airlines cancelled 4.14% of its flights here against 0.85% for Endeavor Air.
Endeavor Air arrived on time 15.2 percentage points more often than SkyWest Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Washington to New York
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DCA→LGA Washington to New York | 14,236 | 74.0% | 4.52% | -6 min | 40 |
| IAD→JFK this route Washington to New York | 1,353 | 72.9% | 3.33% | -5 min | 43 |
Flying to JFK from the Washington area? Compare IAD, DCA, BWI for JFK, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Thursday the least, a gap of 10.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2024-09 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 69.4% against 73.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,353 IAD → JFK 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