Kansas City, MO · departure reliability
MCI
Kansas City International
- Departures
- 49,614
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 11
- US rank
- #38 by volume
Kansas City
Kansas City International lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 49,614 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 8,118 at 86.4% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the eleven carriers covered here at 86.4% on time across 8,118 flights.
Key figures
On time
80.0%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.52%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
86.4% on time here
These figures cover 50,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 7 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.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of MCI
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 23,435 | 78.1% | 53 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 8,118 | 86.4% | 89 min | 1.93% | A |
| American Airlines | 5,019 | 81.4% | 105 min | 2.03% | B |
| United Airlines | 3,744 | 79.5% | 81 min | 1.36% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2,584 | 76.8% | 110 min | 2.44% | B |
| Republic Airways | 1,592 | 80.4% | 94 min | 3.08% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 1,586 | 81.1% | 70 min | 2.40% | B |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,078 | 86.1% | 64 min | 0.65% | A+ |
| PSA Airlines | 993 | 74.6% | 124 min | 8.26% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 594 | 80.7% | 69 min | 3.70% | B− |
| 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
Busiest routes out of MCI
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from MCI, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 80.0%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MCI to DEN · Denver | 4,370 | 78.1% | 67 min | 0.53% | B+ |
| MCI to ORD · Chicago | 4,280 | 74.6% | 101 min | 2.94% | C |
| MCI to ATL · Atlanta | 3,246 | 86.4% | 72 min | 1.32% | A |
| MCI to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 2,523 | 78.6% | 92 min | 2.58% | B |
| MCI to PHX · Phoenix | 2,479 | 78.9% | 65 min | 0.61% | B+ |
| MCI to MDW · Chicago | 2,112 | 80.4% | 52 min | 0.95% | B+ |
| MCI to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,033 | 80.0% | 48 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| MCI to DAL · Dallas | 2,025 | 80.6% | 59 min | 1.09% | B |
| MCI to DCA · Washington | 1,950 | 75.3% | 79 min | 3.64% | B− |
| MCI to LGA · New York | 1,850 | 76.3% | 85 min | 4.86% | B− |
| MCI to MCO · Orlando | 1,554 | 78.1% | 58 min | 1.09% | B |
| MCI to BNA · Nashville | 1,375 | 80.6% | 52 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| MCI to DTW · Detroit | 1,344 | 87.8% | 84 min | 1.26% | A |
| MCI to LAX · Los Angeles | 1,337 | 82.5% | 59 min | 0.45% | B+ |
| MCI to CLT · Charlotte | 1,147 | 82.3% | 101 min | 2.27% | B |
| MCI to SEA · Seattle | 1,126 | 85.0% | 65 min | 0.98% | A+ |
| MCI to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,088 | 83.5% | 95 min | 1.56% | B |
| MCI to AUS · Austin | 1,050 | 81.0% | 65 min | 0.38% | B+ |
| MCI to STL · St. Louis | 1,017 | 85.1% | 51 min | 0.49% | A+ |
| MCI to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,005 | 87.0% | 61 min | 0.90% | A+ |
| MCI to HOU · Houston | 1,002 | 82.4% | 49 min | 0.30% | B+ |
| MCI to PHL · Philadelphia | 913 | 82.4% | 136 min | 4.05% | B− |
| MCI to BWI · Baltimore | 882 | 82.2% | 47 min | 1.81% | B |
| MCI to MIA · Miami | 872 | 84.5% | 71 min | 1.38% | B |
| MCI to TPA · Tampa | 667 | 78.1% | 52 min | 0.30% | B+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave MCI
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 28 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am12,257 flights91.3%
- 8am–11am7,608 flights86.2%
- 11am–2pm8,316 flights82.0%
- 2pm–5pm9,994 flights75.0%
- 5pm–8pm9,350 flights67.5%
- 8pm–5am2,089 flights63.0%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 63.0% on time, against 91.3% 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 12,257 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MCI departures by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On departures from Kansas City (MCI), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.3% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 63.0%, a wide gap of 28.3 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.3%
- 8–11am86.2%
- 11am–2pm82.0%
- 2–5pm75.0%
- 5–8pm67.5%
- 8pm–5am63.0%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When MCI runs late
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 49,614 flights. The strip shows how much of MCI's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
December is the weak month at 74.5% on time, against 84.9% in February. 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. July was the busiest month here, with 4,761 flights.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 85.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.7%, a spread of 10 points.
MCI month by month
Delay causes
Why MCI gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 699,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 31%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 699,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. The split is drawn from 699,079 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 91.3% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.52% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.33%.
6.8% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
49,614 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.
What to do with this
Flying out of MCI
Put together: avoid the 8pm–5am departure. It runs 63.0% on time against 91.3% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 28 points is the largest single thing you control here. Delta Air Lines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 48,695 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MCI delay questions
How often is Kansas City (MCI) delayed?
About 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 20.0% of the 49,614 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Kansas City (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 Kansas City (MCI)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.3% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 63.0%, 28 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 Kansas City (MCI)?
December is the weakest month at 74.5% on time, compared with 84.9% in February. Across the year that is 10 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
- MCI to DEN — Denver78.1%
- MCI to ORD — Chicago74.6%
- MCI to ATL — Atlanta86.4%
- MCI to DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth78.6%
- MCI to PHX — Phoenix78.9%
- MCI to MDW — Chicago80.4%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record78.1%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record86.4%
- American Airlines on-time record81.4%
- United Airlines on-time record79.5%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- US airports with the biggest gap between their best and worst month
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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.