Route profile
LGA→ILM
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to Wilmington, 500 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 28% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,115 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
LGA → ILM arrives on time 80.5% of the time; the return trip, ILM → LGA, arrives on time 82.1% of the time.
LGA → ILM spends 32.9 minutes on the ground on a 500-mile trip: 26.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LGA and 6.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at ILM.
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 100% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Endeavor Air (80.5% on time) and Republic Airways (80.4%) 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 ILM differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LGA to ILM is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 77.6% arrive on time, 10.2 points ahead of the 67.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.2 points.
LGA to ILM struggles most at 9 AM: 83.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 3 points behind the 86.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
LGA to ILM holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 82.7% on time to their 78.2%, a 4.5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.5 points.
September is kinder to LGA to ILM than to routes of similar length: 88.7% on time against 83.9%, 4.8 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
Endeavor Air’s flights on LGA to ILM arrive on time 80.5% of the time, 2.9 points below the 83.4% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 3.8 points.
LGA to ILM against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 77.6% | routes of similar length | 67.4% | +10.2 pts | 646 here, 68,300 there |
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 83.1% | routes of similar length | 86.1% | −3.0 pts | 804 here, 79,153 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 82.7% | routes of similar length | 78.2% | +4.5 pts | 600 here, 209,607 there |
| Month: September | 88.7% | routes of similar length | 83.9% | +4.8 pts | 381 here, 114,964 there |
| Airline: Endeavor Air | 80.5% | routes of similar length | 83.4% | −2.9 pts | 1,125 here, 29,861 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 500 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 → ILM flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LGA → ILM cancelled 209 of 4,115 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 20. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 48.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 41 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 209 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.
101 cancellations, 48.3% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
91 cancellations, 43.5% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
17 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. 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.
209 coded cancellations were recorded on LGA → ILM; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
44 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 4,115 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ILM after arriving from LGA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 19% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.0% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.7% | 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 5.08% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,899 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 44 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,115 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LGA → ILM flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.6% of the time, against 74.7% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 17.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 92.0% on time from 346 flights
- 9 AM: 83.1% on time from 826 flights
- 10 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 77.2% on time from 187 flights
- 2 PM: 84.2% on time from 590 flights
- 3 PM: 74.5% on time from 443 flights
- 4 PM: 75.4% on time from 176 flights
- 5 PM to 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 71.1% on time from 448 flights
- 8 PM: 77.6% on time from 704 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why LGA → ILM 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 → ILM. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on LGA → ILM, at 45.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.6% of the time and 3–6 PM departures 74.7%.
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 | 2,939 | 80.4% | 5.44% | -10 min | 7.1% |
| Endeavor Air | 1,176 | 80.5% | 4.17% | -12 min | 7.3% |
Republic Airways flew 71.4% of the 4,115 flights listed. Republic Airways cancelled 5.44% of its flights here against 4.17% for Endeavor Air.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| YX4792 Republic Airways | 7:59 PM | 844 | 73.8% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.8%
- Feb: 82.8%
- Mar: 80.0%
- Apr: 83.2%
- May: 80.0%
- Jun: 76.1%
- Jul: 69.9%
- Aug: 80.1%
- Sep: 88.7%
- Oct: 85.9%
- Nov: 86.5%
- Dec: 75.5%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 18.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 70.9% from 163 flights
- August 2023: 85.3% from 170 flights
- September 2023: 88.6% from 158 flights
- October 2023: 92.2% from 143 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (109)
- December 2023: too few flights to score (102)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (88)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (85)
- March 2024: too few flights to score (93)
- April 2024: too few flights to score (105)
- May 2024: 86.5% from 137 flights
- June 2024: 79.6% from 163 flights
- July 2024: 72.6% from 178 flights
- August 2024: 72.2% from 176 flights
- September 2024: 89.0% from 164 flights
- October 2024: 90.8% from 173 flights
- November 2024: 92.8% from 153 flights
- December 2024: 80.5% from 150 flights
- January 2025: too few flights to score (82)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (74)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (78)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (86)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (81)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (93)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (84)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (79)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (78)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (87)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (84)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (84)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (87)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (77)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (85)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (85)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (96)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (99)
- July 2026: too few flights to score (86)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 74.7% against 79.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,115 LGA → ILM 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