Which New York airport has the fewest flight delays?

LaGuardia (LGA) has the lowest delay rate at 20.6% of 448,129 departing flights, January 2023 to December 2025. JFK is at 22.9% and Newark (EWR) at 23.4%. LaGuardia also has the highest cancellation rate of the three (2.67%, 2024 to 2025).

Which New York airport cancels the fewest flights?

JFK, at 1.93% of scheduled departures in 2024 to 2025. Newark is at 2.52% and LaGuardia at 2.67%.

How do I know which of two airports on my route has better on-time performance?

Compare delay and cancellation rates on the airport and comparison pages, then factor in your airline and departure time. A morning departure from the higher-rate airport is often safer than an evening departure from the lower-rate one.

Is ORD or Midway better for avoiding delays?

Midway (MDW) has the lower delay rate: 23.2% against 24.2% at O'Hare, and a lower cancellation rate (1.13% against 1.56%). Midway's evenings are worse, though: 37.5% of flights scheduled after 8 PM ran late, against 33.1% at O'Hare.

Why does time of day matter more than airport choice?

Late-arriving aircraft carry delays forward through the day. At Newark, 12.5% of flights scheduled before 8 AM ran late against 34.5% after 8 PM, a gap of 22.1 points, which is much larger than the 2.8-point gap between the best and worst New York airport.

EWR vs LGA vs JFK: Which New York Airport Has Fewer Delays? (2026 Data)

Matt — Founder. Published September 9, 2026. Updated October 1, 2026. 8 min read.

Figures checked against DelayGuard BTS tables on 2026-10-01. Canonical page: JFK vs LGA vs EWR.

Correction, 2026-10-01: an earlier version of this article quoted LaGuardia at 27% delayed and Newark at 24%. Those figures did not match DelayGuard's BTS tables and have been replaced by the figures below, which are the same ones shown on the JFK, LGA and EWR comparison page.

New York: JFK vs LaGuardia vs Newark

Across January 2023 to December 2025, the share of departing flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late ran from 20.6% at LaGuardia to 23.4% at Newark, with JFK at 22.9%. Cancellations (2024 to 2025) ran from 1.93% at JFK to 2.67% at LaGuardia.

Airport	Delay rate	Flights in sample	Cancellation rate	Scheduled before 8 AM	Scheduled after 8 PM	Worst month	Largest carrier in this window
John F. Kennedy (JFK)	22.9%	352,760	1.93%	13.4%	31.8%	July (33.0%)	JetBlue 31.9%
LaGuardia (LGA)	20.6%	448,129	2.67%	10.2%	27.8%	July (30.6%)	Republic Airways 29.6%
Newark Liberty (EWR)	23.4%	376,766	2.52%	12.5%	34.5%	July (36.5%)	United 54.0%

Source: BTS On-Time Reporting, flights departing each airport, January 2023 to December 2025 (cancellations 2024 to 2025). A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule; cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the delay rate.

How to read it:

Fewest delays: LaGuardia (20.6%), but it also has the highest cancellation rate (2.67%). A flight that is cancelled does not count as delayed, so look at both numbers.
Fewest cancellations: JFK (1.93%).
Most delays: Newark (23.4%), with 2.52% cancelled.
All three share airspace. Newark, JFK and LaGuardia are served by the same approach control, the FAA's New York TRACON (N90), so a flow restriction there can constrain all three at once. The FAA also classes JFK and LaGuardia as Level 3 (slot-coordinated) airports.
The spread is only 2.8 points. Time of day moves the odds far more: after 8 PM, Newark ran late 34.5% of the time against 12.5% before 8 AM.

Chicago: O'Hare vs Midway

Airport	Delay rate	Cancellation rate	Scheduled before 8 AM	Scheduled after 8 PM
Chicago O'Hare (ORD)	24.2%	1.56%	12.9%	33.1%
Chicago Midway (MDW)	23.2%	1.13%	9.9%	37.5%

Midway has the lower delay rate (23.2% against 24.2%) and the lower cancellation rate. Southwest flies 90.9% of Midway's departures. Full detail is on the ORD vs MDW comparison.

Other Metro Pairs

Pair	Delay rate	Cancellation rate
Miami (MIA) vs Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood (FLL)	27.0% vs 27.3%	1.49% vs 1.44%	MIA vs FLL
San Francisco (SFO) vs Oakland (OAK)	20.8% vs 17.9%	1.03% vs 0.67%	SFO vs OAK
Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) vs Dallas Love Field (DAL)	26.7% vs 22.6%	2.31% vs 1.28%	DFW vs DAL
Houston Bush (IAH) vs Houston Hobby (HOU)	23.3% vs 20.1%	1.66% vs 1.20%	IAH vs HOU

Same source and windows as above.

How to Choose Between Two Airports

Compare delay and cancellation rates together, as above.
Check the hour. A morning departure from the airport with the higher average is often safer than an evening departure from the lower one.
Check the airline. Rates differ by carrier at the same airport; the airport pages list them.
Use DelayGuard's predictor for a specific flight.

Airport Pages

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