Route profile
PIT→JFK
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Pittsburgh to New York, 340 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 70% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 5,410 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
PIT → JFK arrives on time 87.5% of the time; the return trip, JFK → PIT, arrives on time 80.3% of the time, a 7.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair. PIT → JFK also cancels 2.66% of flights, against 4.23% for JFK → PIT.
PIT → JFK spends 29.0 minutes on the ground on a 340-mile trip: 17.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at PIT and 11.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at JFK.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 94% of 4,467 comparable routes.
90.4% on time on the best day (Tuesday) against 86.1% on the worst (Friday).
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where PIT to JFK differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
PIT to JFK is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 10 AM: 96.2% arrive on time, 11.3 points ahead of the 84.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.5 points.
PIT to JFK holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 87.1% on time to their 76.5%, a 10.6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 12.3 points.
July is kinder to PIT to JFK than to routes of similar length: 83.8% on time against 73.4%, 10.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 14.1 points.
Republic Airways does better on PIT to JFK than on its routes of similar length: 89.0% on time here, 83.6% there, 5.4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.9 points.
PIT to JFK against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 AM departures | 96.2% | routes of similar length | 84.9% | +11.3 pts | 184 here, 78,898 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 87.1% | routes of similar length | 76.5% | +10.6 pts | 742 here, 166,656 there |
| Month: July | 83.8% | routes of similar length | 73.4% | +10.4 pts | 568 here, 125,344 there |
| Airline: Republic Airways | 89.0% | routes of similar length | 83.6% | +5.4 pts | 3,976 here, 78,048 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 340 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 PIT → JFK flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
PIT → JFK cancelled 144 of 5,410 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 38. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 42.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 89 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 144 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.
61 cancellations, 42.4% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
50 cancellations, 34.7% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
33 cancellations, 22.9% 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.
144 coded cancellations were recorded on PIT → JFK; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
23 min late
against a median of 12 min early
Percentiles over 5,410 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at JFK after arriving from PIT.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 24% | High risk |
| 45 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 8.0% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.7% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 3.3% | 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 2.66% of the time and diverts 0.15% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,258 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 23 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 5,410 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
PIT → JFK flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.1% of the time, against 75.4% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 16.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.8% on time from 428 flights
- 6 AM: 90.5% on time from 547 flights
- 7 AM: 92.6% on time from 1,209 flights
- 8 AM: 90.0% on time from 213 flights
- 9 AM: 90.9% on time from 581 flights
- 10 AM: 96.2% on time from 185 flights
- 11 AM: 89.8% on time from 642 flights
- 12 PM: 80.4% on time from 422 flights
- 1 PM to 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 82.7% on time from 190 flights
- 5 PM: 72.9% on time from 321 flights
- 6 PM: 73.4% on time from 431 flights
- 7 PM: 79.9% on time from 213 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why PIT → JFK runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for PIT → JFK. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 | 4,063 | 89.0% | 1.97% | -12 min | 3.9% |
| Endeavor Air | 560 | 82.0% | 3.39% | -12 min | 8.9% |
| JetBlue | 546 | 85.1% | 6.78% | -7 min | 5.9% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 241 | 79.0% | 3.32% | -11 min | 7.3% |
Republic Airways flew 75.1% of the 5,410 flights listed. JetBlue cancelled 6.78% of its flights here against 1.97% for Republic Airways.
Republic Airways arrived on time 10.0 percentage points more often than SkyWest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| YX4568 Republic Airways | 9:25 AM | 694 | 87.1% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.8%
- Feb: 86.5%
- Mar: 88.5%
- Apr: 88.0%
- May: 87.4%
- Jun: 84.7%
- Jul: 83.8%
- Aug: 89.8%
- Sep: 89.2%
- Oct: 92.4%
- Nov: 92.1%
- Dec: 80.0%
December is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 12.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 84.7% from 155 flights
- August 2023: 93.5% from 155 flights
- September 2023: 87.1% from 149 flights
- October 2023: 93.5% from 155 flights
- November 2023: 95.9% from 145 flights
- December 2023: 92.6% from 137 flights
- January 2024: 91.4% from 143 flights
- February 2024: 94.4% from 147 flights
- March 2024: 91.6% from 155 flights
- April 2024: 91.4% from 153 flights
- May 2024: 88.9% from 156 flights
- June 2024: 84.5% from 151 flights
- July 2024: 78.2% from 155 flights
- August 2024: 82.3% from 155 flights
- September 2024: 95.3% from 149 flights
- October 2024: 96.8% from 155 flights
- November 2024: 90.3% from 145 flights
- December 2024: 73.8% from 141 flights
- January 2025: 82.5% from 128 flights
- February 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- March 2025: 83.6% from 124 flights
- April 2025: 81.7% from 120 flights
- May 2025: 83.7% from 155 flights
- June 2025: 84.2% from 149 flights
- July 2025: 88.2% from 155 flights
- August 2025: 93.4% from 155 flights
- September 2025: 85.8% from 178 flights
- October 2025: 87.7% from 183 flights
- November 2025: 90.5% from 176 flights
- December 2025: 73.9% from 137 flights
- January 2026: too few flights to score (117)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (115)
- March 2026: 89.5% from 128 flights
- April 2026: 90.1% from 121 flights
- May 2026: 89.7% from 149 flights
- June 2026: 85.2% from 150 flights
- July 2026: 84.2% from 155 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 86.6% against 85.6% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 5,410 PIT → JFK 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