Route profile
LGA→MEM
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to Memphis, 963 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 26% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,004 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
LGA → MEM arrives on time 81.0% of the time; the return trip, MEM → LGA, arrives on time 84.2% of the time, a 3.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LGA → MEM spends 32.3 minutes on the ground on a 963-mile trip: 25.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LGA and 6.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at MEM.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where LGA to MEM differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LGA to MEM is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 PM: 81.0% arrive on time, 15.2 points ahead of the 65.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.5 points.
LGA to MEM holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 85.4% on time to their 77.8%, a 7.6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
August is kinder to LGA to MEM than to routes of similar length: 81.8% on time against 74.7%, 7.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
Republic Airways’ flights on LGA to MEM arrive on time 80.0% of the time, 2.4 points below the 82.4% it manages on its routes of similar length. Against all other routes the gap is 2.1 points.
LGA to MEM against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 9 PM departures | 81.0% | routes of similar length | 65.8% | +15.2 pts | 321 here, 86,846 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 85.4% | routes of similar length | 77.8% | +7.6 pts | 315 here, 408,359 there |
| Month: August | 81.8% | routes of similar length | 74.7% | +7.1 pts | 340 here, 245,131 there |
| Airline: Republic Airways | 80.0% | routes of similar length | 82.4% | −2.4 pts | 2,839 here, 67,203 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 963 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 → MEM flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LGA → MEM cancelled 169 of 4,004 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 24. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 47.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 50 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 169 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.
80 cancellations, 47.3% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
63 cancellations, 37.3% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
26 cancellations, 15.4% 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.
169 coded cancellations were recorded on LGA → MEM; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
42 min late
against a median of 13 min early
Percentiles over 4,004 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MEM after arriving from LGA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 29% | High risk |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 4.7% | 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 4.22% of the time and diverts 0.22% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,826 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 42 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,004 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LGA → MEM flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.6% of the time, against 72.1% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 18.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 90.6% on time from 497 flights
- 9 AM: 83.8% on time from 162 flights
- 10 AM: 86.6% on time from 277 flights
- 11 AM: 85.5% on time from 273 flights
- 12 PM: 87.5% on time from 324 flights
- 1 PM: 80.6% on time from 351 flights
- 2 PM: 78.7% on time from 382 flights
- 3 PM: 80.5% on time from 244 flights
- 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 74.8% on time from 146 flights
- 6 PM: 71.9% on time from 145 flights
- 7 PM: 70.3% on time from 186 flights
- 8 PM: 72.6% on time from 651 flights
- 9 PM: 81.0% on time from 350 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why LGA → MEM 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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for LGA → MEM. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on LGA → MEM, at 41.5%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.6% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 72.1%.
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 | 2,980 | 80.0% | 4.50% | -12 min | 7.8% |
| Endeavor Air | 845 | 83.3% | 3.67% | -15 min | 7.3% |
Republic Airways flew 77.9% of the 3,825 flights listed.
Endeavor Air arrived on time 3.3 percentage points more often than Republic Airways on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 73.1%
- Feb: 83.4%
- Mar: 83.2%
- Apr: 85.6%
- May: 78.5%
- Jun: 78.0%
- Jul: 69.8%
- Aug: 81.8%
- Sep: 85.9%
- Oct: 86.4%
- Nov: 88.5%
- Dec: 78.5%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 18.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 72.6% from 129 flights
- August 2023: 86.7% from 139 flights
- September 2023: 79.3% from 130 flights
- October 2023: 89.4% from 141 flights
- November 2023: 91.8% from 134 flights
- December 2023: too few flights to score (110)
- January 2024: too few flights to score (118)
- February 2024: 87.2% from 129 flights
- March 2024: 89.9% from 130 flights
- April 2024: 87.1% from 134 flights
- May 2024: 81.8% from 139 flights
- June 2024: 83.8% from 126 flights
- July 2024: 67.4% from 139 flights
- August 2024: 74.2% from 136 flights
- September 2024: 93.2% from 133 flights
- October 2024: 96.4% from 140 flights
- November 2024: 92.2% from 128 flights
- December 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (83)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (76)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (87)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (85)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (81)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (85)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (89)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (87)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (86)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (90)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (82)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (74)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (54)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (49)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (78)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (91)
- May 2026: 77.4% from 136 flights
- June 2026: 74.3% from 120 flights
- July 2026: 66.0% from 120 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.0% against 82.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 7.6 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,004 LGA → MEM 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