Carrier performance at one airport
OO→MKE
SkyWest Airlines at Milwaukee Mitchell International
- Departures
- 7,246
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 5
- Rank here
- #8 of 8
SkyWest Airlines at Milwaukee sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 7,246 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,772 at 87.2% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, SkyWest Airlines runs 7 points behind the 78.2% weighted average across all carriers at MKE. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
71.3%
7,017 completed departures
Avg delay
95 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
3.09%
At MKE, this carrier only
Rank here
#8
Of 8 carriers clearing the floor at MKE
These figures cover 7,246 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 13.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at MKE, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.2% of the time; SkyWest Airlines manages 71.3%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 7,246 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,772 | 87.2% | 91 min | 1.64% | A |
| Southwest Airlines | 9,939 | 80.2% | 55 min | 0.94% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 509 | 79.6% | 39 min | 0.39% | B+ |
| PSA Airlines | 1,312 | 78.0% | 123 min | 5.11% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 2,376 | 77.9% | 81 min | 5.39% | B− |
| American Airlines | 2,346 | 76.9% | 113 min | 2.64% | B |
| United Airlines | 764 | 76.3% | 63 min | 0.13% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines (this page) | 7,246 | 71.3% | 95 min | 3.09% | C− |
Republic Airways cancels 5.4% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where SkyWest Airlines flies from MKE
SkyWest Airlines operates 5 routes out of MKE with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MKE to ORD · Chicago | 4,932 | 67.3% | 94 min | 4.12% | C− |
| MKE to MSP · Minneapolis | 899 | 83.4% | 96 min | 1.22% | B |
| MKE to DTW · Detroit | 897 | 76.0% | 119 min | 1.00% | B |
| MKE to DEN · Denverthin sample | 285 | 77.5% | 65 min | 0.35% | B+ |
| MKE to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 216 | 81.9% | 52 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 23 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,272 flights80.4%
- 8am–11am1,752 flights73.2%
- 11am–2pm1,191 flights69.5%
- 2pm–5pm877 flights63.8%
- 5pm–8pm1,124 flights57.5%
- 8pm–5am30 flights—
Scale runs 50% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 57.5% on time, against 80.4% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 2,272 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 63.2% on time, against 78.9% in September. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. May was the busiest month here, with 812 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 52%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 17%Late-arriving aircraft
- 13%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 13% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 2.0 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 191,349 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.09%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 13.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The sample behind these figures is 7,246 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.09% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 7,017 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
SkyWest Airlines at MKE
How often is SkyWest Airlines at MKE delayed?
Roughly one flight in three arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 28.7% of the 7,246 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on SkyWest Airlines at MKE?
Delta Air Lines leads at 87.2% on time across 3,772 flights. SkyWest Airlines is at the other end on 71.3%, a gap of 16 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on SkyWest Airlines at MKE?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 80.4% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 57.5%, 23 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are December delays on SkyWest Airlines at MKE?
December is the weakest month at 63.2% on time, compared with 78.9% in September. Across the year that is 16 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.