Airport month record

MCISEP

Kansas City International in September 2025

Departures: 3,928
Month: September 2025
National, same month: 83.4%
Carriers: 10

Historical statistics for September 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s September. For today’s conditions at MCI, see live FAA status.

MCI in September lands a B+, about a point worse than the national rate of 83.4%. About one flight in six arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 3,928 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 706 at 87.2% on time.

Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the three carriers covered here at 87.2% on time across 706 flights.

On time

82.0%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,901 completed departures

Avg delay

58 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.33%

Nationally in September: 0.51%

Whole year

79.6%

MCI across all twelve months

These figures cover 3,928 departures from Kansas City International in September 2025. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.

Against the year

September next to MCI's other months

Against MCI's own year, September ran 2 points better than the twelve-month rate of 79.6%, which makes it number three of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for MCI in September, at 0.33% against 1.51% across the year. Either side of it, August ran 79.7% on time and October 80.3%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

MCI month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	4,442	73.2%	79 min	1.96%	C
August 2025	4,113	79.7%	64 min	0.92%	B+
September 2025 (this page)	3,928	82.0%	58 min	0.33%	B+
October 2025	4,214	80.3%	58 min	0.33%	B+
November 2025	3,956	81.1%	72 min	1.82%	B
December 2025	3,969	74.5%	83 min	1.36%	C
January 2026	3,508	84.3%	81 min	3.39%	B−
February 2026	3,503	84.9%	69 min	1.48%	B
March 2026	4,227	79.3%	75 min	3.41%	B−
April 2026	4,184	81.9%	70 min	0.98%	B+
May 2026	4,354	79.5%	65 min	1.10%	B
June 2026	4,581	76.7%	73 min	1.24%	B

Departure window

The best time of day to leave MCI in September

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 35 points, against 9 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am903 flights92.5%
8am–11am634 flights88.7%
11am–2pm666 flights85.0%
2pm–5pm900 flights76.3%
5pm–8pm739 flights70.3%
8pm–5am86 flights57.1%

Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 57.1% on time, against 92.5% 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 903 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 86.8% on time and Friday the weakest at 71.7%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at MCI in September

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 87.2% of the time; American Airlines manages 78.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 462 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at MCI in September 2025
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Southwest Airlines	1,853	82.4%	49 min	0.11%	B+
Delta Air Lines	706	87.2%	78 min	0.00%	A+
American Airlines	462	78.7%	77 min	1.52%	B
United Airlinesthin sample	273	82.4%	52 min	0.00%	B+
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	143	75.5%	41 min	0.00%	B+
Republic Airwaysthin sample	136	73.9%	47 min	0.74%	C+
Envoy Airthin sample	132	77.1%	77 min	0.76%	B+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	107	81.0%	43 min	1.87%	B
Spirit Airlinesthin sample	81	84.8%	103 min	0.00%	B+
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	30	60.0%	59 min	0.00%	D+

Delta leads American by 9 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of MCI in September

Routes from MCI in September 2025
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
MCI to DEN · Denverthin sample	361	76.7%	51 min	0.00%	B+
MCI to ORD · Chicagothin sample	301	78.9%	50 min	0.33%	B+
MCI to ATL · Atlantathin sample	291	92.1%	43 min	0.00%	A+
MCI to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	217	74.1%	77 min	2.30%	C
MCI to MDW · Chicagothin sample	178	83.7%	41 min	0.00%	B+
MCI to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	163	83.1%	65 min	1.23%	B
MCI to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	158	75.2%	54 min	0.00%	B+
MCI to DAL · Dallasthin sample	155	81.6%	59 min	0.65%	B+
MCI to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	150	82.4%	56 min	0.00%	B+
MCI to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	140	83.5%	73 min	0.00%	B+
MCI to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	113	84.1%	71 min	0.00%	B+
MCI to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	112	91.1%	45 min	0.00%	A+
MCI to SEA · Seattlethin sample	111	84.3%	63 min	1.80%	B
MCI to MCO · Orlandothin sample	108	86.1%	59 min	0.00%	A+
MCI to DTW · Detroitthin sample	107	89.6%	115 min	0.00%	A+
MCI to CLT · Charlottethin sample	99	81.6%	113 min	1.01%	B
MCI to STL · St. Louisthin sample	90	91.1%	42 min	0.00%	A+
MCI to BWI · Baltimorethin sample	86	83.7%	37 min	0.00%	B+
MCI to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	85	91.8%	79 min	0.00%	A+
MCI to MSP · Minneapolisthin sample	82	64.6%	53 min	0.00%	D+
MCI to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	78	78.2%	49 min	0.00%	B+
MCI to HOU · Houstonthin sample	77	83.1%	41 min	0.00%	B+
MCI to AUS · Austinthin sample	69	82.6%	57 min	0.00%	B+
MCI to EWR · Newarkthin sample	56	78.2%	63 min	0.00%	B+
MCI to BOS · Bostonthin sample	55	50.0%	66 min	1.82%	F

Delay causes

What held MCI up in September

Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 41,000 reported delay minutes.

Late-arriving aircraft
38%
Carrier
30%
National Airspace System
27%
Extreme weather
4%
Security
1%

38% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 41,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 10 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 41,073 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.33%, below the national 0.51% 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.

Badly late arrivals are rare here: only 4.8% land an hour or more behind schedule, against 5.4% nationally. Connections built on this flight are about as safe as US domestic connections get, though a cancelled flight still ignores every layover you give it.

What to do with this

Flying from MCI in September

For a September trip through MCI: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 82.0% on time with 0.33% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Kansas City International (MCI), the whole year
MCI in July73.2%
MCI in August79.7%
MCI in October80.3%
MCI in November81.1%
MCI in December74.5%
MCI in January84.3%
MCI in February84.9%
MCI in March79.3%
MCI in April81.9%
MCI in May79.5%
MCI in June76.7%

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures