Route profile
SLC→JFK
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Salt Lake City to New York, 1,990 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 44% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,065 flights. How this is calculated
SLC → JFK arrives on time 79.1% of the time; the return trip, JFK → SLC, arrives on time 79.9% of the time.
SLC → JFK spends 29.2 minutes on the ground on a 1,990-mile trip: 17.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SLC and 11.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at JFK.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where SLC to JFK differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SLC to JFK struggles most at 10 PM: 66.8% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 13.9 points behind the 80.7% on routes of similar length at the same hour.
SLC to JFK is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 78.2% arrive on time, 4.8 points ahead of the 73.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8.4 points.
SLC to JFK holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 81.5% on time to their 77.0%, a 4.5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
May is kinder to SLC to JFK than to routes of similar length: 85.3% on time against 76.6%, 8.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.1 points.
In July, SLC to JFK runs 4.8 points below routes of similar length, 65.5% on time to 70.3%. Against all other routes the gap is 4.2 points.
SLC to JFK against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 10 PM departures | 66.8% | routes of similar length | 80.7% | −13.9 pts | 307 here, 52,413 there |
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 78.2% | routes of similar length | 73.4% | +4.8 pts | 1,167 here, 68,705 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 81.5% | routes of similar length | 77.0% | +4.5 pts | 847 here, 163,392 there |
| Month: May | 85.3% | routes of similar length | 76.6% | +8.7 pts | 463 here, 96,306 there |
| Month: July | 65.5% | routes of similar length | 70.3% | −4.8 pts | 605 here, 133,371 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 1,990 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 SLC → JFK flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SLC → JFK cancelled 80 of 6,065 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 76. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 52.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 144 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 80 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.
42 cancellations, 52.5% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
26 cancellations, 32.5% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
12 cancellations, 15.0% 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.
80 coded cancellations were recorded on SLC → JFK; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
49 min late
against a median of 10 min early
Percentiles over 6,065 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at JFK after arriving from SLC.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 33% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.2% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.3% | 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 1.32% of the time and diverts 0.59% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 5,949 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 49 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,065 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SLC → JFK flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.2% of the time, against 71.4% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 21.8 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 92.2% on time from 154 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 85.6% on time from 1,049 flights
- 10 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
- 1 PM: 74.0% on time from 410 flights
- 2 PM: 70.5% on time from 832 flights
- 3 PM: 68.5% on time from 167 flights
- 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 78.2% on time from 1,186 flights
- 6 PM to 9 PM: too few flights to score
- 10 PM: 66.8% on time from 320 flights
- 11 PM: 82.5% on time from 1,785 flights
Why SLC → JFK runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SLC → JFK. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 4,683 | 82.1% | 0.96% | -12 min | 6.3% |
| JetBlue | 1,382 | 69.1% | 2.53% | -2 min | 15.7% |
Delta Air Lines flew 77.2% of the 6,065 flights listed. JetBlue cancelled 2.53% of its flights here against 0.96% for Delta Air Lines.
Delta Air Lines arrived on time 13.0 percentage points more often than JetBlue on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL705 (11:55 PM) arrived on time 84.9% of the time, 11.1 points more often than DL671 (2:30 PM) at 73.8%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.5%
- Feb: 80.2%
- Mar: 78.8%
- Apr: 83.2%
- May: 85.3%
- Jun: 76.9%
- Jul: 65.5%
- Aug: 75.2%
- Sep: 80.0%
- Oct: 85.0%
- Nov: 87.5%
- Dec: 78.4%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 22.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 60.5% from 186 flights
- August 2023: 78.0% from 186 flights
- September 2023: 65.3% from 155 flights
- October 2023: 90.3% from 155 flights
- November 2023: 89.0% from 146 flights
- December 2023: 78.9% from 180 flights
- January 2024: 71.4% from 193 flights
- February 2024: 78.6% from 174 flights
- March 2024: 77.6% from 185 flights
- April 2024: 81.9% from 151 flights
- May 2024: 87.6% from 155 flights
- June 2024: 73.8% from 150 flights
- July 2024: 64.9% from 155 flights
- August 2024: 65.6% from 155 flights
- September 2024: 83.3% from 150 flights
- October 2024: 80.1% from 156 flights
- November 2024: 90.5% from 147 flights
- December 2024: 73.1% from 176 flights
- January 2025: 85.5% from 167 flights
- February 2025: 78.4% from 172 flights
- March 2025: 77.8% from 215 flights
- April 2025: 83.6% from 165 flights
- May 2025: 82.6% from 155 flights
- June 2025: 76.7% from 150 flights
- July 2025: 65.8% from 155 flights
- August 2025: 81.2% from 154 flights
- September 2025: 91.3% from 150 flights
- October 2025: 84.5% from 157 flights
- November 2025: 82.9% from 147 flights
- December 2025: 83.5% from 169 flights
- January 2026: 79.6% from 161 flights
- February 2026: 83.8% from 174 flights
- March 2026: 80.9% from 197 flights
- April 2026: 83.9% from 162 flights
- May 2026: 85.8% from 155 flights
- June 2026: 80.3% from 150 flights
- July 2026: 72.5% from 155 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.5% against 78.5% in the 12 months before — improving by 4.0 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,065 SLC → 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