OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

New York to Seattle

2,422 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on JFK–SEA arrive on time 65% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate65%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay50 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled2.7%of scheduled flights

based on 2,862 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • Delta Air Linesbest
    On-time70%
    Medianon time
    p9040 min
    Cancel2.2%
    Flights1,338
  • JetBlue Airways
    On-time62%
    Medianon time
    p9090 min
    Cancel0.8%
    Flights122
  • Alaska Airlines
    On-time61%
    Medianon time
    p9055 min
    Cancel3.2%
    Flights1,402

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline25%
  • Weather6%
  • Air traffic (NAS)46%
  • Late aircraft22%
  • Security1%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Air traffic (NAS).

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline32%
  • Weather57%
  • Air traffic (NAS)12%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 76 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly JFK → SEA

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Middays are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 84% on time.

  • Middays84% on time · p90 20 min · 1,816 flights
  • Mornings81% on time · p90 25 min · 2,666 flights
  • Afternoons73% on time · p90 45 min · 2,058 flights
  • Evenings63% on time · p90 70 min · 2,261 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 73% to 79% on time.

  • Tuesdays79% on time · p90 35 min · 1,242 flights
  • Wednesdays78% on time · p90 35 min · 1,241 flights
  • Mondays75% on time · p90 45 min · 1,276 flights
  • Saturdays75% on time · p90 45 min · 1,245 flights
  • Thursdays74% on time · p90 40 min · 1,271 flights
  • Fridays74% on time · p90 40 min · 1,284 flights
  • Sundays73% on time · p90 45 min · 1,286 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.