Route profile
LGA→CMH
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to Columbus, 479 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 36% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,455 flights. How this is calculated
LGA → CMH arrives on time 82.8% of the time; the return trip, CMH → LGA, arrives on time 83.7% of the time.
LGA → CMH spends 32.1 minutes on the ground on a 479-mile trip: 24.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LGA and 7.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at CMH.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 96% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Republic Airways (82.8% on time) and Spirit Airlines (81.8%) are close together here.
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 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where LGA to CMH differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LGA to CMH is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 78.4% arrive on time, 11.4 points ahead of the 67.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11 points.
LGA to CMH holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 86.6% on time to their 80.2%, a 6.4 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
August is kinder to LGA to CMH than to routes of similar length: 85.5% on time against 77.7%, 7.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.
LGA to CMH against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 78.4% | routes of similar length | 67.0% | +11.4 pts | 204 here, 72,926 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 86.6% | routes of similar length | 80.2% | +6.4 pts | 618 here, 180,223 there |
| Month: August | 85.5% | routes of similar length | 77.7% | +7.8 pts | 743 here, 127,123 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 479 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 LGA → CMH flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LGA → CMH cancelled 304 of 9,455 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 31. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 40.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 77 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 304 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.
123 cancellations, 40.5% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
96 cancellations, 31.6% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
85 cancellations, 28.0% 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.
304 coded cancellations were recorded on LGA → CMH; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
41 min late
against a median of 13 min early
Percentiles over 9,455 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at CMH after arriving from LGA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 26% | High risk |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.6% | 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 3.22% of the time and diverts 0.11% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,141 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 41 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,455 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LGA → CMH flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.2% of the time, against 76.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 13.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 93.5% on time from 530 flights
- 7 AM: 85.9% on time from 522 flights
- 8 AM: 90.5% on time from 779 flights
- 9 AM: 85.6% on time from 496 flights
- 10 AM: 84.7% on time from 251 flights
- 11 AM: 88.4% on time from 873 flights
- 12 PM: 85.5% on time from 780 flights
- 1 PM: 81.4% on time from 604 flights
- 2 PM: 83.3% on time from 610 flights
- 3 PM: 72.6% on time from 240 flights
- 4 PM: 72.1% on time from 295 flights
- 5 PM: 79.0% on time from 1,619 flights
- 6 PM: 76.8% on time from 342 flights
- 7 PM: 76.3% on time from 1,234 flights
- 8 PM: 78.4% on time from 210 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why LGA → CMH 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 LGA → CMH. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on LGA → CMH, at 39.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.2% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 76.6%.
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 | 8,775 | 82.8% | 3.25% | -13 min | 7.5% |
| Spirit Airlines | 593 | 81.8% | 3.20% | -12 min | 7.0% |
Republic Airways flew 93.7% of the 9,368 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.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.8 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.8%
- Feb: 83.4%
- Mar: 80.2%
- Apr: 84.3%
- May: 80.6%
- Jun: 78.6%
- Jul: 75.0%
- Aug: 85.5%
- Sep: 90.5%
- Oct: 85.6%
- Nov: 87.5%
- Dec: 81.5%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 15.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 72.6% from 270 flights
- August 2023: 90.8% from 297 flights
- September 2023: 87.7% from 272 flights
- October 2023: 90.9% from 275 flights
- November 2023: 96.4% from 253 flights
- December 2023: 92.7% from 224 flights
- January 2024: 83.3% from 225 flights
- February 2024: 91.2% from 231 flights
- March 2024: 90.5% from 241 flights
- April 2024: 90.1% from 255 flights
- May 2024: 88.8% from 271 flights
- June 2024: 88.5% from 237 flights
- July 2024: 80.3% from 251 flights
- August 2024: 78.8% from 245 flights
- September 2024: 92.0% from 240 flights
- October 2024: 94.2% from 257 flights
- November 2024: 94.1% from 270 flights
- December 2024: 84.5% from 238 flights
- January 2025: 82.5% from 260 flights
- February 2025: 78.9% from 248 flights
- March 2025: 83.3% from 278 flights
- April 2025: 84.1% from 296 flights
- May 2025: 70.3% from 276 flights
- June 2025: 67.2% from 246 flights
- July 2025: 70.5% from 252 flights
- August 2025: 85.3% from 228 flights
- September 2025: 91.9% from 259 flights
- October 2025: 73.1% from 305 flights
- November 2025: 73.4% from 289 flights
- December 2025: 68.7% from 260 flights
- January 2026: 79.7% from 262 flights
- February 2026: 80.1% from 232 flights
- March 2026: 66.1% from 267 flights
- April 2026: 78.5% from 249 flights
- May 2026: 82.9% from 251 flights
- June 2026: 80.2% from 220 flights
- July 2026: 76.5% from 225 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.8% against 81.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,455 LGA → CMH 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