Route profile
RDU→LGA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Raleigh–Durham to New York, 431 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 4% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 10,234 flights. How this is calculated
RDU → LGA arrives on time 75.2% of the time; the return trip, LGA → RDU, arrives on time 79.0% of the time, a 3.9-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
RDU → LGA spends 32.5 minutes on the ground on a 431-mile trip: 23.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at RDU and 8.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at LGA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
On-time performance swings unusually widely by time of day here, wider than 100% of 4,023 comparable routes.
86.0% on time for 9 AM–12 PM departures, against 36.1% for 9 PM–5 AM.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
Why RDU → LGA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
RDU → LGA cancelled 400 of 10,234 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 26. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 48.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 52 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 400 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
195 cancellations, 48.8% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
144 cancellations, 36.0% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
61 cancellations, 15.3% 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.
400 coded cancellations were recorded on RDU → LGA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
68 min late
against a median of 7 min early
RDU → LGA has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 7 min early, but the worst tenth are 75 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 10,234 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LGA after arriving from RDU.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 38% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 24% | High risk |
| 60 min | 18% | High risk |
| 90 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 7.5% | 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 3.91% of the time and diverts 0.25% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,808 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 68 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 10,234 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
RDU → LGA flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 86.0% of the time, against 36.1% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 49.9 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 89.9% on time from 243 flights
- 6 AM: 87.0% on time from 1,187 flights
- 7 AM: 84.8% on time from 202 flights
- 8 AM: 82.8% on time from 732 flights
- 9 AM: 87.2% on time from 570 flights
- 10 AM: 86.3% on time from 491 flights
- 11 AM: 84.5% on time from 548 flights
- 12 PM: 68.4% on time from 707 flights
- 1 PM: 70.3% on time from 691 flights
- 2 PM: 72.3% on time from 978 flights
- 3 PM: 76.3% on time from 986 flights
- 4 PM: 66.4% on time from 543 flights
- 5 PM: 66.5% on time from 943 flights
- 6 PM: too few flights to score
- 7 PM: 65.6% on time from 1,011 flights
- 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 35.3% on time from 221 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why RDU → LGA runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
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 RDU → LGA. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
How this route holds up in bad weather
July 2023 – July 2026
The harder-hit end is LGA, where the flight lands. Its figure counts departures from LGA, so it says more about how that airport copes than about this route. Bad weather cancels 4.1 times the normal rate at LGA against 2.6 times at RDU. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: RDU 4.1% against 1.6%, LGA 9.0% against 2.2%. Flights that did leave LGA in bad weather arrived on time 63.6% of the time, against 80.9% in normal hours.
Bad weather and normal hours at the airports
Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026| Departures from | RDU | LGA |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled in bad weather | 4.1% | 9.0% |
| Cancelled in normal hours | 1.6% | 2.2% |
| Arrived on time, bad weather | 74.9% | 63.6% |
| Arrived on time, normal hours | 79.9% | 80.9% |
| Departures in bad weather | 16,672 | 56,339 |
Of the carriers on this route, Delta Air Lines (2.9% cancelled against 4.4% for the other carriers at RDU) cancelled the fewest departures from RDU in bad weather and Republic Airways (7.8% cancelled against 4.4% for the other carriers at RDU) the most.
This route’s airlines in bad weather at RDU
All departures from RDU| Airline | Bad-weather departures | Cancelled | Other carriers |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,499 | 2.9%below the others | 4.4% |
| American Airlines | 3,228 | 4.0%about level | 3.8% |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,043 | 5.3%about level | 4.7% |
| Endeavor Air | 889 | 5.1%above the others | 2.3% |
| Republic Airways | 1,805 | 7.8%above the others | 4.4% |
These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from RDU and LGA, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from RDU on every route.
Weather source and limits. In full: RDU (airlines), LGA, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.
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 | 4,292 | 73.7% | 4.73% | -4 min | 11.2% |
| Endeavor Air | 3,025 | 80.8% | 3.50% | -12 min | 8.8% |
| American Airlines | 1,748 | 76.7% | 2.57% | -9 min | 12.6% |
| Frontier Airlines | 636 | 54.5% | 4.40% | 10 min | 17.7% |
| Delta Air Lines | 369 | 73.0% | 3.79% | -8 min | 13.5% |
Republic Airways flew 42.6% of the 10,070 flights listed. Republic Airways cancelled 4.73% of its flights here against 2.57% for American Airlines.
Endeavor Air arrived on time 26.3 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 7.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.5%
- Feb: 78.4%
- Mar: 77.1%
- Apr: 75.0%
- May: 75.0%
- Jun: 69.8%
- Jul: 67.9%
- Aug: 74.0%
- Sep: 79.5%
- Oct: 75.9%
- Nov: 78.1%
- Dec: 74.0%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 11.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 69.1% from 332 flights
- August 2023: 82.9% from 357 flights
- September 2023: 79.9% from 337 flights
- October 2023: 84.4% from 360 flights
- November 2023: 87.4% from 310 flights
- December 2023: 82.4% from 277 flights
- January 2024: 80.8% from 302 flights
- February 2024: 83.0% from 312 flights
- March 2024: 83.7% from 327 flights
- April 2024: 76.7% from 368 flights
- May 2024: 75.4% from 369 flights
- June 2024: 72.0% from 349 flights
- July 2024: 66.3% from 366 flights
- August 2024: 62.8% from 360 flights
- September 2024: 80.3% from 352 flights
- October 2024: 78.1% from 367 flights
- November 2024: 84.1% from 335 flights
- December 2024: 75.2% from 323 flights
- January 2025: 76.7% from 212 flights
- February 2025: 77.8% from 197 flights
- March 2025: 79.5% from 199 flights
- April 2025: 74.7% from 217 flights
- May 2025: 70.4% from 221 flights
- June 2025: 63.8% from 238 flights
- July 2025: 65.2% from 252 flights
- August 2025: 76.2% from 245 flights
- September 2025: 77.7% from 255 flights
- October 2025: 61.2% from 269 flights
- November 2025: 58.2% from 256 flights
- December 2025: 61.9% from 240 flights
- January 2026: 77.0% from 218 flights
- February 2026: 71.6% from 210 flights
- March 2026: 62.4% from 204 flights
- April 2026: 72.5% from 203 flights
- May 2026: 79.2% from 207 flights
- June 2026: 73.8% from 154 flights
- July 2026: 74.1% from 134 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 70.0% against 74.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 10,234 RDU → LGA 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