Minneapolis, MN · departure reliability
MSP
Minneapolis-St Paul International
- Departures
- 114,673
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Carriers
- 10
- US rank
- #19 by volume
Minneapolis
Minneapolis-St Paul International lands a B, 2 points better than the national rate of 77.3%. 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 114,673 flights, of which Alaska Airlines flew 1,247 at 82.7% on time.
Alaska Airlines is the most reliable of the ten carriers covered here at 82.7% on time across 1,247 flights.
Key figures
On time
79.2%
Departures arriving under 15 minutes late at their destination
Avg delay
71 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.44%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Alaska
82.7% on time here
These figures cover 115,000 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 MSP
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Alaska Airlines arrives on time 82.7% of the time; Frontier Airlines manages 72.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,301 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 64,705 | 79.4% | 61 min | 1.19% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines | 28,179 | 80.0% | 87 min | 1.51% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 5,695 | 78.9% | 53 min | 0.97% | B+ |
| United Airlines | 5,436 | 75.7% | 83 min | 1.32% | B |
| American Airlines | 4,212 | 79.5% | 100 min | 2.02% | B |
| Republic Airways | 1,402 | 80.4% | 88 min | 6.56% | B− |
| Frontier Airlines | 1,301 | 72.2% | 95 min | 1.46% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 1,247 | 82.7% | 68 min | 1.20% | B |
| Envoy Air | 1,233 | 73.9% | 69 min | 3.16% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 1,188 | 74.0% | 137 min | 6.40% | C− |
Republic Airways cancels 6.6% 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 79.2%.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSP to ORD · Chicago | 6,395 | 70.0% | 83 min | 2.85% | C |
| MSP to DEN · Denver | 5,811 | 77.8% | 70 min | 0.77% | B+ |
| MSP to ATL · Atlanta | 3,489 | 81.7% | 67 min | 0.49% | B+ |
| MSP to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 3,312 | 77.8% | 83 min | 2.23% | B |
| MSP to PHX · Phoenix | 2,974 | 80.3% | 70 min | 0.91% | B+ |
| MSP to SEA · Seattle | 2,676 | 80.9% | 62 min | 0.97% | B+ |
| MSP to DCA · Washington | 2,632 | 74.6% | 85 min | 3.19% | C− |
| MSP to CLT · Charlotte | 2,451 | 80.5% | 82 min | 1.39% | B |
| MSP to MDW · Chicago | 2,303 | 78.1% | 57 min | 1.65% | B |
| MSP to EWR · Newark | 2,225 | 79.5% | 75 min | 4.63% | B− |
| MSP to LAX · Los Angeles | 2,107 | 81.5% | 52 min | 1.00% | B |
| MSP to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,086 | 80.1% | 62 min | 1.05% | B |
| MSP to PHL · Philadelphia | 2,085 | 79.4% | 93 min | 3.93% | B− |
| MSP to STL · St. Louis | 1,958 | 79.6% | 65 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| MSP to MCO · Orlando | 1,941 | 75.3% | 77 min | 1.49% | B |
| MSP to IAH · Houston | 1,940 | 82.2% | 62 min | 0.88% | B+ |
| MSP to SFO · San Francisco | 1,926 | 66.8% | 55 min | 0.67% | C+ |
| MSP to DTW · Detroit | 1,884 | 82.7% | 59 min | 0.58% | B+ |
| MSP to BOS · Boston | 1,849 | 76.4% | 61 min | 1.19% | B |
| MSP to LGA · New York | 1,813 | 78.8% | 67 min | 2.92% | B |
| MSP to BNA · Nashville | 1,777 | 81.0% | 49 min | 1.58% | B |
| MSP to AUS · Austin | 1,685 | 80.0% | 57 min | 0.71% | B+ |
| MSP to MKE · Milwaukee | 1,617 | 80.7% | 78 min | 0.87% | B+ |
| MSP to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,616 | 85.1% | 50 min | 0.43% | A+ |
| MSP to PDX · Portland | 1,577 | 81.7% | 53 min | 0.63% | 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 17 points, against 11 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am15,923 flights88.1%
- 8am–11am23,971 flights83.5%
- 11am–2pm20,313 flights80.3%
- 2pm–5pm18,908 flights74.9%
- 5pm–8pm17,947 flights71.3%
- 8pm–5am17,611 flights77.0%
Scale runs 65% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.1% of the time, against 71.3% for the evening window. That is 17 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 23,971 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MSP 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 Minneapolis (MSP), the best departure window is 5am–8am at 88.1% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 71.3%, a wide gap of 16.8 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am88.1%
- 8–11am83.5%
- 11am–2pm80.3%
- 2–5pm74.9%
- 5–8pm71.3%
- 8pm–5am77.0%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%.
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. July was the busiest month here, with 10,990 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 75.8%, a spread of 7 points.
MSP month by month
From Europe
Transatlantic routes into MSP
8 European airports send scheduled passenger flights to MSP, 6,177 flights a year in both directions by the DOT's international count. The DOT keeps no delay record for international flights; the UK routes carry the CAA's departure punctuality, and every route sets its departure airport's EUROCONTROL figures beside MSP's own record above.
Delay causes
Why MSP gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 51% of the 1.67 million delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 51%Carrier
- 23%National Airspace System
- 18%Late-arriving aircraft
- 8%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
The largest share of delay minutes, 51%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 852,000 of the 1.67 million delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 1,666,101 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.44% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.29%.
7.3% 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.
114,673 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. 112,688 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MSP delay questions
How often is Minneapolis (MSP) 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 20.8% of the 114,673 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 Minneapolis (MSP)?
Alaska Airlines leads at 82.7% on time across 1,247 flights. Frontier Airlines is at the other end on 72.2%, a gap of 11 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 88.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 71.3%, 17 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 — Denver77.8%
- MSP to ATL — Atlanta81.7%
- MSP to DFW — Dallas-Fort Worth77.8%
- MSP to PHX — Phoenix80.3%
- MSP to SEA — Seattle80.9%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record79.4%
- SkyWest Airlines on-time record80.0%
- Southwest Airlines on-time record78.9%
- United Airlines on-time record75.7%
- 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
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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.