Carrier performance at one airport
OO→MKE
SkyWest Airlines at Milwaukee Mitchell International
- Departures
- 7,040
- Period
- June 2025 to May 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, 7 points worse than the national rate of 77.4%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 7,040 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,846 at 86.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, SkyWest Airlines runs 7 points behind the 78.0% 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
70.5%
6,822 completed departures
Avg delay
95 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
3.03%
At MKE, this carrier only
Rank here
#8
Of 8 carriers clearing the floor at MKE
These figures cover 7,040 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 14.1% 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 86.7% of the time; SkyWest Airlines manages 70.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 7,040 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,846 | 86.7% | 90 min | 1.69% | A |
| Southwest Airlines | 9,891 | 80.6% | 56 min | 1.00% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 510 | 79.8% | 41 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 2,337 | 77.3% | 81 min | 5.26% | B− |
| American Airlines | 2,340 | 77.0% | 117 min | 2.52% | B |
| United Airlines | 793 | 76.5% | 65 min | 0.13% | B+ |
| PSA Airlines | 1,258 | 76.0% | 126 min | 4.61% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlines (this page) | 7,040 | 70.5% | 95 min | 3.03% | C− |
Republic Airways cancels 5.3% 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 | 4,895 | 66.4% | 94 min | 3.96% | C− |
| MKE to DTW · Detroit | 919 | 77.0% | 118 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| MKE to MSP · Minneapolis | 779 | 82.6% | 98 min | 1.41% | B |
| MKE to DEN · Denverthin sample | 239 | 77.8% | 69 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| MKE to IAH · Houstonthin sample | 191 | 81.2% | 51 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 25 points, against 16 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,235 flights80.4%
- 8am–11am1,590 flights71.4%
- 11am–2pm1,210 flights70.4%
- 2pm–5pm907 flights62.4%
- 5pm–8pm1,069 flights55.4%
- 8pm–5am29 flights—
Scale runs 45% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 55.4% 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.
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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 53%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.
Cancellations run at 3.03%, against 1.80% nationally. That is roughly 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. 14.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% 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 7,040 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 3.03% 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.
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 29.5% of the 7,040 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% 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 86.7% on time across 3,846 flights. SkyWest Airlines is at the other end on 70.5%, 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 55.4%, 25 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, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.