Carrier performance at one airport
WN→MCI
Southwest Airlines at Kansas City International
- Departures
- 23,435
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #8 of 11
Southwest Airlines at Kansas City lands a B+, about a point better than the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average. That rests on 23,435 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 8,118 at 86.4% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Southwest Airlines runs 2 points behind the 80.1% weighted average across all carriers at MCI. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
78.1%
23,175 completed departures
Avg delay
53 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
0.76%
At MCI, this carrier only
Rank here
#8
Of 11 carriers clearing the floor at MCI
These figures cover 23,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 4 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Against the competition
Every carrier at MCI, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.4% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 73.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 578 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 8,118 | 86.4% | 89 min | 1.93% | A |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,078 | 86.1% | 64 min | 0.65% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 5,019 | 81.4% | 105 min | 2.03% | B |
| Envoy Air | 1,586 | 81.1% | 70 min | 2.40% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 594 | 80.7% | 69 min | 3.70% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 1,592 | 80.4% | 94 min | 3.08% | B− |
| United Airlines | 3,744 | 79.5% | 81 min | 1.36% | B |
| Southwest Airlines (this page) | 23,435 | 78.1% | 53 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,584 | 76.8% | 110 min | 2.44% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 993 | 74.6% | 124 min | 8.26% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 578 | 73.0% | 90 min | 0.52% | C+ |
PSA Airlines cancels 8.3% 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 Southwest Airlines flies from MCI
Southwest Airlines operates 25 routes out of MCI 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCI to DEN · Denver | 2,367 | 74.8% | 59 min | 0.59% | C+ |
| MCI to MDW · Chicago | 2,112 | 80.4% | 52 min | 0.95% | B+ |
| MCI to DAL · Dallas | 2,025 | 80.6% | 59 min | 1.09% | B |
| MCI to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,776 | 79.6% | 46 min | 0.28% | B+ |
| MCI to PHX · Phoenix | 1,649 | 76.8% | 53 min | 0.42% | B+ |
| MCI to BNA · Nashville | 1,374 | 80.6% | 52 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| MCI to MCO · Orlando | 1,314 | 77.6% | 56 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| MCI to STL · St. Louis | 1,017 | 85.1% | 51 min | 0.49% | A+ |
| MCI to HOU · Houston | 1,002 | 82.4% | 49 min | 0.30% | B+ |
| MCI to DCA · Washington | 997 | 72.9% | 60 min | 1.71% | C |
| MCI to AUS · Austin | 896 | 80.2% | 55 min | 0.45% | B+ |
| MCI to BWI · Baltimore | 882 | 82.2% | 47 min | 1.81% | B |
| MCI to LGA · New York | 839 | 73.9% | 62 min | 3.22% | C− |
| MCI to TPA · Tampa | 640 | 78.0% | 53 min | 0.31% | B+ |
| MCI to LAX · Los Angeles | 548 | 69.0% | 51 min | 0.55% | C+ |
| MCI to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 404 | 74.9% | 48 min | 1.24% | C |
| MCI to SAN · San Diego | 384 | 73.4% | 42 min | 0.26% | C+ |
| MCI to ATL · Atlanta | 365 | 77.1% | 57 min | 0.27% | B+ |
| MCI to MSY · New Orleansthin sample | 358 | 79.0% | 50 min | 0.28% | B+ |
| MCI to MKE · Milwaukeethin sample | 354 | 75.0% | 47 min | 0.56% | B+ |
| MCI to IND · Indianapolisthin sample | 350 | 77.7% | 40 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| MCI to SAT · San Antoniothin sample | 270 | 79.3% | 52 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| MCI to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample | 214 | 80.0% | 58 min | 1.40% | B |
| MCI to SMF · Sacramentothin sample | 199 | 74.2% | 49 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| MCI to PNS · Pensacolathin sample | 192 | 84.3% | 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 32 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am5,038 flights93.1%
- 8am–11am3,417 flights88.4%
- 11am–2pm4,349 flights82.1%
- 2pm–5pm5,099 flights71.8%
- 5pm–8pm4,193 flights60.7%
- 8pm–5am1,339 flights60.9%
Scale runs 50% to 100%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 60.7% on time, against 93.1% 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 5,099 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
June is the worst month at 70.2% on time, 16 points below January, the best at 86.3%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. July was the busiest month here, with 2,242 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 24%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 269,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 20 to one. The split is drawn from 268,955 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.76%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
6.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last roughly 55 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
23,435 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. January runs 86.3% on time and June 70.2%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of June before you think about anything else. 23,175 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
Southwest Airlines at MCI
How often is Southwest Airlines at MCI delayed?
Roughly one flight in five arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.9% of the 23,435 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by roughly 55 minutes on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Southwest Airlines at MCI?
Delta Air Lines leads at 86.4% on time across 8,118 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 73.0%, a gap of 13 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 Southwest Airlines at MCI?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 93.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 60.7%, 32 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 June delays on Southwest Airlines at MCI?
June is the weakest month at 70.2% on time, compared with 86.3% in January. 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.