Route profile
JFK→CLE
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to Cleveland, 425 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 51% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,889 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
JFK → CLE arrives on time 84.4% of the time; the return trip, CLE → JFK, arrives on time 83.9% of the time.
JFK → CLE spends 36.0 minutes on the ground on a 425-mile trip: 26.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at JFK and 9.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at CLE.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where JFK to CLE differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
JFK to CLE is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 3 PM: 85.6% arrive on time, 12.2 points ahead of the 73.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.9 points.
JFK to CLE holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 85.2% on time to their 77.0%, a 8.2 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
February is kinder to JFK to CLE than to routes of similar length: 93.6% on time against 81.6%, 12 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 12.2 points.
Republic Airways does better on JFK to CLE than on its routes of similar length: 86.8% on time here, 82.7% there, 4.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.7 points.
JFK to CLE against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 3 PM departures | 85.6% | routes of similar length | 73.4% | +12.2 pts | 556 here, 100,654 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 85.2% | routes of similar length | 77.0% | +8.2 pts | 532 here, 244,446 there |
| Month: February | 93.6% | routes of similar length | 81.6% | +12.0 pts | 220 here, 112,849 there |
| Airline: Republic Airways | 86.8% | routes of similar length | 82.7% | +4.1 pts | 2,300 here, 148,469 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 425 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 JFK → CLE flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
JFK → CLE cancelled 124 of 3,889 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 31. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 50.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 62 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 124 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
63 cancellations, 50.8% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
51 cancellations, 41.1% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
10 cancellations, 8.1% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
124 coded cancellations were recorded on JFK → CLE; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
33 min late
against a median of 12 min early
Percentiles over 3,889 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CLE after arriving from JFK.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 27% | High risk |
| 45 min | 15% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.4% | 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 3.19% 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 3,760 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 33 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,889 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
JFK → CLE flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.1% of the time, against 72.7% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 19.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 95.0% on time from 142 flights
- 8 AM: 90.3% on time from 220 flights
- 9 AM: 89.9% on time from 591 flights
- 10 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 86.9% on time from 600 flights
- 1 PM: 85.8% on time from 261 flights
- 2 PM: 79.8% on time from 521 flights
- 3 PM: 85.6% on time from 574 flights
- 4 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 72.1% on time from 517 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why JFK → CLE 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 JFK → CLE. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on JFK → CLE, at 36.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.1% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 72.7%.
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 | 2,361 | 86.8% | 2.50% | -12 min | 4.4% |
| Endeavor Air | 970 | 85.2% | 3.61% | -11 min | 5.3% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 434 | 73.7% | 5.53% | -8 min | 12.8% |
Republic Airways flew 62.7% of the 3,765 flights listed. SkyWest Airlines cancelled 5.53% of its flights here against 2.50% for Republic Airways.
Republic Airways arrived on time 13.1 percentage points more often than SkyWest 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 7.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.2%
- Feb: 93.6%
- Mar: 89.4%
- Apr: 89.5%
- May: 85.6%
- Jun: 71.6%
- Jul: 74.4%
- Aug: 78.1%
- Sep: 85.5%
- Oct: 89.5%
- Nov: 93.7%
- Dec: 83.2%
June is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 22.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 79.9% from 163 flights
- August 2023: 78.8% from 174 flights
- September 2023: 84.8% from 184 flights
- October 2023: 88.3% from 162 flights
- November 2023: 92.7% from 151 flights
- December 2023: 90.1% from 132 flights
- January 2024: 88.1% from 132 flights
- February 2024: 94.3% from 143 flights
- March 2024: 92.3% from 155 flights
- April 2024: 90.9% from 146 flights
- May 2024: 85.0% from 155 flights
- June 2024: 70.1% from 154 flights
- July 2024: 73.8% from 159 flights
- August 2024: 76.0% from 160 flights
- September 2024: 84.0% from 150 flights
- October 2024: 92.4% from 157 flights
- November 2024: 96.0% from 149 flights
- December 2024: 78.8% from 133 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (66)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (58)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (67)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (64)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (67)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (64)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (66)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (68)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (60)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (62)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (34)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (42)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (36)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (28)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (33)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (60)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (72)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (90)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (93)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.9% against 85.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,889 JFK → CLE 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