Milwaukee, WI · departure reliability
MKE
Milwaukee Mitchell International
- Departures
- 29,572
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 8
- US rank
- #52 by volume
Milwaukee
Milwaukee Mitchell International 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 a little over an hour on average. That rests on 29,572 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 3,668 at 86.8% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the eight carriers covered here at 86.8% on time across 3,668 flights.
Key figures
On time
78.1%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
81 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.41%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
86.8% on time here
These figures cover 30,000 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines run best out of MKE
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 86.8% of the time; SkyWest Airlines manages 72.5%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 7,650 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 10,080 | 79.8% | 54 min | 0.90% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 7,650 | 72.5% | 94 min | 3.05% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 3,668 | 86.8% | 85 min | 1.77% | A |
| American Airlines | 2,432 | 76.9% | 113 min | 2.47% | B |
| Republic Airways | 2,407 | 78.5% | 82 min | 6.02% | B− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,321 | 76.5% | 135 min | 6.81% | B− |
| United Airlines | 686 | 78.2% | 60 min | 0.15% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlines | 509 | 80.6% | 38 min | 0.39% | B+ |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.8% 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 MKE
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 22 busiest departures from MKE, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 78.1%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MKE to ORD · Chicago | 5,344 | 68.4% | 93 min | 4.38% | C− |
| MKE to DEN · Denver | 2,310 | 78.8% | 57 min | 0.43% | B+ |
| MKE to ATL · Atlanta | 2,264 | 88.5% | 86 min | 1.99% | A |
| MKE to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,619 | 83.0% | 92 min | 0.93% | B+ |
| MKE to DTW · Detroit | 1,488 | 79.7% | 109 min | 1.41% | B |
| MKE to PHX · Phoenix | 1,445 | 78.2% | 71 min | 0.90% | B+ |
| MKE to MCO · Orlando | 1,432 | 77.4% | 61 min | 1.19% | B |
| MKE to DCA · Washington | 1,345 | 72.7% | 100 min | 4.09% | C− |
| MKE to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,079 | 76.0% | 114 min | 3.24% | B− |
| MKE to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,033 | 81.0% | 53 min | 1.06% | B |
| MKE to BNA · Nashville | 976 | 80.7% | 49 min | 1.13% | B |
| MKE to CLT · Charlotte | 953 | 78.4% | 115 min | 1.68% | B |
| MKE to LGA · New York | 868 | 81.1% | 92 min | 7.49% | B− |
| MKE to EWR · Newark | 851 | 79.9% | 89 min | 5.88% | B− |
| MKE to BWI · Baltimore | 827 | 84.7% | 74 min | 1.57% | B |
| MKE to BOS · Boston | 736 | 72.1% | 62 min | 3.40% | C− |
| MKE to STL · St. Louis | 681 | 88.6% | 58 min | 0.88% | A+ |
| MKE to PHL · Philadelphia | 524 | 80.2% | 125 min | 8.21% | B− |
| MKE to SEA · Seattle | 509 | 80.6% | 38 min | 0.39% | B+ |
| MKE to TPA · Tampa | 470 | 81.6% | 59 min | 1.49% | B |
| MKE to DAL · Dallas | 396 | 82.1% | 62 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| MKE to RSW · Fort Myers | 375 | 80.8% | 61 min | 0.80% | B+ |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave MKE
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 21 points, against 14 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am8,737 flights86.3%
- 8am–11am4,827 flights83.0%
- 11am–2pm5,341 flights76.6%
- 2pm–5pm5,076 flights73.4%
- 5pm–8pm5,085 flights66.6%
- 8pm–5am506 flights65.4%
Scale runs 55% to 90%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 86.3% of the time, against 65.4% for the overnight window. That is 21 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 8,737 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MKE 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 Milwaukee (MKE), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 86.3% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 65.4%, a wide gap of 20.9 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am86.3%
- 8–11am83.0%
- 11am–2pm76.6%
- 2–5pm73.4%
- 5–8pm66.6%
- 8pm–5am65.4%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When MKE runs late
MKE's year swings by 13 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
December is the weak month at 70.1% on time, against 83.0% 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. July was the busiest month here, with 2,759 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 81.1% on time and Sunday the weakest at 74.1%, a spread of 7 points.
MKE month by month
Delay causes
Why MKE gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 43% of the 511,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 43%Carrier
- 29%Late-arriving aircraft
- 21%National Airspace System
- 7%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 221,000 of the 511,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 510,644 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 86.3% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 2.41% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.24%.
8.1% 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.
29,572 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 MKE
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 83.0% on time and December 70.1%, a swing of 13 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else. 28,789 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MKE delay questions
How often is Milwaukee (MKE) 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 29,572 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 Milwaukee (MKE)?
Delta Air Lines leads at 86.8% on time across 3,668 flights. SkyWest Airlines is at the other end on 72.5%, a gap of 14 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 Milwaukee (MKE)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 86.3% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 65.4%, 21 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 Milwaukee (MKE)?
December is the weakest month at 70.1% on time, compared with 83.0% in September. Across the year that is 13 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
- MKE to ORD — Chicago68.4%
- MKE to DEN — Denver78.8%
- MKE to ATL — Atlanta88.5%
- MKE to MSP — Minneapolis83.0%
- MKE to DTW — Detroit79.7%
- MKE to PHX — Phoenix78.2%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record79.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record72.5%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record86.8%
- American Airlines on-time record76.9%
- US airports with the biggest gap between their best and worst month
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Embed MKE’s on-time badge on your site
Paste this into a web page. The badge shows the current on-time rate, cancellation rate and grade, and updates every month. Preview it, or build a badge for another route or airport.
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.