Route profile
JFK→IND
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to Indianapolis, 665 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 19% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,876 flights. How this is calculated
JFK → IND arrives on time 80.0% of the time; the return trip, IND → JFK, arrives on time 84.7% of the time, a 4.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
JFK → IND spends 36.8 minutes on the ground on a 665-mile trip: 28.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at JFK and 8.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at IND.
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.
77.6% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 77.4% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), 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 JFK to IND differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
JFK to IND is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 7 PM: 78.5% arrive on time, 10.6 points ahead of the 67.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.7 points.
JFK to IND holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 82.2% on time to their 76.9%, a 5.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5 points.
Saturday is the day JFK to IND slips furthest against routes of similar length, 74.0% on time where they average 79.2%, 5.2 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 5.1 points.
March is kinder to JFK to IND than to routes of similar length: 84.7% on time against 78.1%, 6.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.8 points.
Endeavor Air’s flights on JFK to IND arrive on time 81.0% of the time, 4.6 points below the 85.6% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 3.3 points.
JFK to IND against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 PM departures | 78.5% | routes of similar length | 67.9% | +10.6 pts | 195 here, 128,706 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 82.2% | routes of similar length | 76.9% | +5.3 pts | 669 here, 336,976 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 74.0% | routes of similar length | 79.2% | −5.2 pts | 684 here, 278,048 there |
| Month: March | 84.7% | routes of similar length | 78.1% | +6.6 pts | 340 here, 183,449 there |
| Airline: Endeavor Air | 81.0% | routes of similar length | 85.6% | −4.6 pts | 1,313 here, 19,465 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 665 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 → IND flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
JFK → IND cancelled 181 of 4,876 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 27. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 53.6% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 50 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 181 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.
97 cancellations, 53.6% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
74 cancellations, 40.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
10 cancellations, 5.5% 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.
181 coded cancellations were recorded on JFK → IND; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
51 min late
against a median of 11 min early
JFK → IND has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 11 min early, but the worst tenth are 62 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 4,876 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at IND after arriving from JFK.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.4% | 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 3.71% of the time and diverts 0.10% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,690 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 51 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,876 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
JFK → IND flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 85.0% of the time, against 76.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 9.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 84.2% on time from 614 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 85.6% on time from 506 flights
- 12 PM: 90.6% on time from 164 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 79.2% on time from 858 flights
- 3 PM: 79.2% on time from 713 flights
- 4 PM: 79.5% on time from 282 flights
- 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 75.5% on time from 740 flights
- 7 PM: 78.5% on time from 210 flights
- 8 PM: 75.7% on time from 628 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why JFK → IND runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 JFK → IND. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on JFK → IND, at 51.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 9 AM–12 PM departures arrived on time 85.0% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 76.0%.
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 | 3,404 | 79.6% | 3.55% | -11 min | 8.9% |
| Endeavor Air | 1,372 | 81.0% | 4.23% | -11 min | 7.8% |
Republic Airways flew 71.3% of the 4,776 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| YX4449 Republic Airways | 3:59 PM | 835 | 77.7% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Saturday the least, a gap of 9.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.6%
- Feb: 86.9%
- Mar: 84.7%
- Apr: 82.9%
- May: 80.1%
- Jun: 74.8%
- Jul: 65.4%
- Aug: 79.7%
- Sep: 79.3%
- Oct: 86.0%
- Nov: 87.9%
- Dec: 77.1%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 22.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 63.4% from 186 flights
- August 2023: 86.2% from 186 flights
- September 2023: 73.3% from 180 flights
- October 2023: 86.6% from 186 flights
- November 2023: 90.1% from 171 flights
- December 2023: 90.0% from 141 flights
- January 2024: 82.4% from 164 flights
- February 2024: 89.8% from 170 flights
- March 2024: 92.2% from 181 flights
- April 2024: 84.8% from 179 flights
- May 2024: 84.7% from 184 flights
- June 2024: 80.7% from 180 flights
- July 2024: 67.2% from 186 flights
- August 2024: 70.8% from 186 flights
- September 2024: 84.4% from 180 flights
- October 2024: 89.2% from 185 flights
- November 2024: 91.9% from 173 flights
- December 2024: 73.0% from 153 flights
- January 2025: 77.2% from 120 flights
- February 2025: too few flights to score (113)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (106)
- 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 (93)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (94)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (94)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (87)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (103)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (93)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (67)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (59)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (54)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (73)
- 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 77.6% against 77.4% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,876 JFK → IND 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