Route profile
SNA→EWR
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Santa Ana to Newark, 2,434 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 36% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,368 flights. How this is calculated
SNA → EWR arrives on time 81.9% of the time; the return trip, EWR → SNA, arrives on time 85.5% of the time, a 3.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SNA → EWR spends 25.9 minutes on the ground on a 2,434-mile trip: 17.0 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SNA and 8.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at EWR.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route has stayed remarkably steady year over year, a smaller swing than 92% of 5,368 comparable routes.
79.6% on time over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), against 80.1% in the 12 months before (2024-08 to 2025-07), virtually unchanged.
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 5,368 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SNA to EWR differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SNA to EWR is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 92.2% arrive on time, 22.7 points ahead of the 69.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 24.8 points.
SNA to EWR struggles most at 12 PM: 65.3% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.2 points behind the 77.5% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.2 points.
SNA to EWR holds up on Fridays better than routes of similar length do: 83.0% on time to their 77.3%, a 5.7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.8 points.
February is kinder to SNA to EWR than to routes of similar length: 88.2% on time against 80.5%, 7.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.8 points.
SNA to EWR against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 92.2% | routes of similar length | 69.5% | +22.7 pts | 141 here, 35,762 there |
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 65.3% | routes of similar length | 77.5% | −12.2 pts | 1,071 here, 46,316 there |
| Weekday: Friday | 83.0% | routes of similar length | 77.3% | +5.7 pts | 466 here, 159,605 there |
| Month: February | 88.2% | routes of similar length | 80.5% | +7.7 pts | 245 here, 71,491 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 2,434 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 SNA → EWR flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SNA → EWR cancelled 63 of 3,368 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 53. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 50.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 105 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 63 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.
32 cancellations, 50.8% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
17 cancellations, 27.0% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
14 cancellations, 22.2% 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.
63 coded cancellations were recorded on SNA → EWR; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
56 min late
against a median of 11 min early
SNA → EWR has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 11 min early, but the worst tenth are 67 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 3,368 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at EWR after arriving from SNA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 29% | High risk |
| 45 min | 18% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 9.6% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 7.4% | 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 1.87% of the time and diverts 1.40% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,258 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 56 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,368 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SNA → EWR flights departing 9 PM–5 AM arrived on time 93.5% of the time, against 65.5% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 28.0 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 89.4% on time from 265 flights
- 7 AM: 86.7% on time from 795 flights
- 8 AM to 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 65.3% on time from 1,102 flights
- 1 PM to 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 92.2% on time from 147 flights
- 9 PM: 93.5% on time from 976 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why SNA → EWR 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
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SNA → EWR. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 3,368 | 81.9% | 1.87% | -11 min | 9.7% |
Other ways to fly Los Angeles to New York
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
Flying to EWR from the Los Angeles area? Compare SNA, LAX, BUR, ONT for EWR, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA1559 United Airlines | 12:45 PM | 673 | 62.1% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 9.9 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 83.2%
- Feb: 88.2%
- Mar: 83.3%
- Apr: 86.3%
- May: 83.1%
- Jun: 81.8%
- Jul: 70.4%
- Aug: 76.2%
- Sep: 84.6%
- Oct: 84.7%
- Nov: 82.4%
- Dec: 81.9%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 17.8 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.6% against 80.1% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,368 SNA → EWR 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