Minneapolis, MN · departure reliability
MSP
Minneapolis-St Paul International
- Departures
- 113,789
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Carriers
- 10
- US rank
- #19 by volume
Minneapolis
Minneapolis-St Paul International lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.4%. About one flight in five arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 113,789 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 1,198 at 80.5% on time.
Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the ten carriers covered here at 80.5% on time across 1,198 flights.
Key figures
On time
79.0%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.36%
National rate is 1.80%
Best carrier
Alaska
80.5% on time here
These figures cover 114,000 flights between June 2025 and May 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 MSP
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 80.5% of the time; Envoy Air manages 73.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,233 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 65,165 | 79.0% | 63 min | 1.09% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 27,006 | 80.2% | 88 min | 1.50% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 5,895 | 79.4% | 57 min | 0.88% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 5,093 | 74.7% | 84 min | 1.16% | C |
| American Airlines | 4,360 | 78.5% | 100 min | 2.36% | B |
| Republic Airways | 1,495 | 79.1% | 77 min | 5.82% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 1,233 | 73.0% | 67 min | 3.08% | C− |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,198 | 80.5% | 55 min | 1.25% | B |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,141 | 77.1% | 91 min | 1.58% | B |
| PSA Airlines | 950 | 74.8% | 116 min | 6.11% | C− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.1% 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 MSP
Route-level records vary far more than the airport average. These are the 25 busiest departures from MSP, each with its own on-time rate against the airport-wide 79.0%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSP to ORD · Chicago | 6,331 | 70.0% | 77 min | 2.23% | C |
| MSP to DEN · Denver | 5,835 | 77.5% | 71 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| MSP to ATL · Atlanta | 3,509 | 83.2% | 68 min | 0.57% | B+ |
| MSP to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,248 | 76.3% | 83 min | 2.31% | B |
| MSP to PHX · Phoenix | 3,141 | 79.7% | 72 min | 0.86% | B+ |
| MSP to SEA · Seattle | 2,707 | 81.2% | 56 min | 1.11% | B |
| MSP to MDW · Chicago | 2,598 | 79.0% | 58 min | 1.42% | B |
| MSP to DCA · Washington | 2,545 | 73.9% | 74 min | 3.10% | C− |
| MSP to CLT · Charlotte | 2,455 | 80.4% | 81 min | 1.79% | B |
| MSP to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,263 | 82.4% | 60 min | 1.02% | B |
| MSP to EWR · Newark | 2,182 | 76.5% | 84 min | 4.22% | B− |
| MSP to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,176 | 82.2% | 50 min | 0.83% | B+ |
| MSP to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,990 | 79.1% | 95 min | 3.12% | B− |
| MSP to DTW · Detroit | 1,946 | 82.3% | 66 min | 0.51% | B+ |
| MSP to MCO · Orlando | 1,943 | 74.8% | 79 min | 1.44% | C |
| MSP to LGA · New York | 1,925 | 79.4% | 68 min | 2.81% | B |
| MSP to SFO · San Francisco | 1,917 | 73.8% | 59 min | 0.73% | C+ |
| MSP to STL · St. Louis | 1,875 | 80.1% | 71 min | 0.91% | B+ |
| MSP to BOS · Boston | 1,847 | 78.0% | 60 min | 1.08% | B |
| MSP to IAH · Houston | 1,846 | 79.9% | 66 min | 1.14% | B |
| MSP to BNA · Nashville | 1,701 | 82.0% | 52 min | 1.35% | B |
| MSP to AUS · Austin | 1,682 | 78.4% | 58 min | 0.59% | B+ |
| MSP to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,597 | 84.2% | 52 min | 0.38% | B+ |
| MSP to PDX · Portland | 1,487 | 82.0% | 53 min | 0.54% | B+ |
| MSP to MKE · Milwaukee | 1,484 | 79.9% | 77 min | 1.01% | B |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave MSP
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 18 points, against 8 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am15,896 flights87.8%
- 8am–11am23,661 flights83.5%
- 11am–2pm20,174 flights80.6%
- 2pm–5pm18,814 flights74.7%
- 5pm–8pm17,005 flights70.0%
- 8pm–5am18,239 flights76.5%
Scale runs 60% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 87.8% of the time, against 70.0% for the evening window. That is 18 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.
Across the year
When MSP runs late
MSP's year swings by 22 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 63.1% on time, against 85.6% 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.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 76.1%. 6 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why MSP gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 51% of the 1.69 million delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 51%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 18%Late-arriving aircraft
- 9%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 51%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 861,000 of the 1.69 million delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations sit at 1.36% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.29%.
7.5% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.2%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route are the a little over an hour kind, which a normal layover absorbs.
113,789 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 MSP
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 85.6% on time and December 63.1%, a swing of 22 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else.
Common questions
MSP delay questions
How often is Minneapolis (MSP) delayed?
About one flight in five arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 21.0% of the 113,789 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Minneapolis (MSP)?
Alaska Airlines leads at 80.5% on time across 1,198 flights. Envoy Air is at the other end on 73.0%, a gap of 8 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 Minneapolis (MSP)?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 70.0%, 18 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 Minneapolis (MSP)?
December is the weakest month at 63.1% on time, compared with 85.6% in September. Across the year that is 22 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
- MSP to ORD — Chicago70.0%
- MSP to DEN — Denver77.5%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record79.0%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record80.2%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record79.4%
- United Airlines on-time record74.7%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.