Airport month record

MSPAPR

Minneapolis-St Paul International in April 2026

Departures: 9,639
Month: April 2026
National, same month: 79.8%
Carriers: 10

Historical statistics for April 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s April. For today’s conditions at MSP, see live FAA status.

MSP in April lands a B+, 4 points better than the national rate of 79.8%. 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 9,639 flights, of which Southwest Airlines flew 452 at 85.5% on time.

Southwest Airlines is the most reliable of the four carriers covered here at 85.5% on time across 452 flights.

On time

83.9%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 9,541 completed departures

Avg delay

68 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.75%

Nationally in April: 0.90%

Whole year

79.1%

MSP across all twelve months

These figures cover 9,639 departures from Minneapolis-St Paul International in April 2026. 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

April next to MSP's other months

Against MSP's own year, April ran 5 points better than the twelve-month rate of 79.1%, which makes it number three of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for MSP in April, at 0.75% against 1.37% across the year. Either side of it, March ran 77.2% on time and May 83.4%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.

MSP month by month
Month	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
July 2025	10,565	74.1%	77 min	0.89%	C+
August 2025	10,305	81.5%	68 min	0.47%	B+
September 2025	9,559	85.6%	59 min	0.10%	A+
October 2025	9,657	84.7%	60 min	0.22%	B+
November 2025	8,806	82.1%	75 min	2.16%	B
December 2025	8,854	63.1%	78 min	2.28%	D
January 2026	8,055	72.9%	74 min	2.41%	C
February 2026	7,923	80.4%	69 min	1.12%	B
March 2026	9,608	77.2%	80 min	5.04%	B−
April 2026 (this page)	9,639	83.9%	68 min	0.75%	B+
May 2026	10,400	83.4%	73 min	0.54%	B+
June 2026	10,491	77.9%	67 min	0.92%	B+

Departure window

The best time of day to leave MSP in April

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 12 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am1,243 flights90.2%
8am–11am2,062 flights86.7%
11am–2pm1,653 flights86.2%
2pm–5pm1,597 flights81.0%
5pm–8pm1,621 flights78.5%
8pm–5am1,463 flights81.1%

Scale runs 70% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 90.2% of the time, against 78.5% for the evening window. That is 12 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 2,062 flights scheduled in it.

Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 89.4% on time and Friday the weakest at 77.2%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

Carrier by carrier

Which airlines ran best at MSP in April

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Southwest Airlines arrives on time 85.5% of the time; United Airlines manages 73.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 419 flights means less than a ten-point one.

Carriers at MSP in April 2026
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Delta Air Lines	5,119	84.8%	55 min	0.31%	B+
SkyWest Airlines	2,697	82.8%	77 min	1.45%	B
Southwest Airlines	452	85.5%	51 min	0.44%	A+
United Airlines	419	73.6%	107 min	1.19%	C
American Airlinesthin sample	342	84.5%	90 min	0.29%	B+
Envoy Airthin sample	160	84.0%	71 min	2.50%	B
Republic Airwaysthin sample	153	90.7%	89 min	1.96%	A
PSA Airlinesthin sample	110	79.6%	90 min	1.82%	B
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	98	83.7%	82 min	0.00%	B+
Alaska Airlinesthin sample	89	94.4%	170 min	0.00%	A+

Southwest leads United by 12 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

Route by route

Busiest routes out of MSP in April

Routes from MSP in April 2026
Route	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
MSP to ORD · Chicago	583	75.9%	105 min	3.26%	B−
MSP to DEN · Denver	440	89.0%	58 min	0.23%	A+
MSP to ATL · Atlantathin sample	283	85.8%	70 min	0.00%	A+
MSP to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worththin sample	259	75.8%	80 min	0.39%	B+
MSP to PHX · Phoenixthin sample	259	85.3%	66 min	0.00%	A+
MSP to MDW · Chicagothin sample	220	83.3%	47 min	0.91%	B+
MSP to DCA · Washingtonthin sample	216	80.5%	46 min	0.46%	B+
MSP to MCO · Orlandothin sample	210	83.3%	78 min	0.00%	B+
MSP to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample	201	85.4%	41 min	0.50%	A+
MSP to SEA · Seattlethin sample	197	93.3%	57 min	0.51%	A+
MSP to CLT · Charlottethin sample	197	81.7%	69 min	0.00%	B+
MSP to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample	188	83.8%	81 min	1.60%	B
MSP to STL · St. Louisthin sample	183	84.2%	51 min	0.00%	B+
MSP to EWR · Newarkthin sample	176	90.8%	42 min	1.14%	A
MSP to LAX · Los Angelesthin sample	175	89.1%	39 min	0.00%	A+
MSP to SFO · San Franciscothin sample	166	63.9%	57 min	0.00%	D+
MSP to IAH · Houstonthin sample	165	86.0%	55 min	0.00%	A+
MSP to BNA · Nashvillethin sample	160	84.6%	46 min	1.88%	B
MSP to DTW · Detroitthin sample	150	87.3%	46 min	0.00%	A+
MSP to BOS · Bostonthin sample	149	83.2%	56 min	0.00%	B+
MSP to LGA · New Yorkthin sample	148	85.8%	51 min	0.00%	A+
MSP to SLC · Salt Lake Citythin sample	146	95.2%	30 min	0.68%	A+
MSP to FSD · Sioux Fallsthin sample	146	82.2%	51 min	0.00%	B+
MSP to AUS · Austinthin sample	142	83.1%	45 min	0.00%	B+
MSP to MKE · Milwaukeethin sample	136	77.8%	101 min	0.74%	B+

Delay causes

What held MSP up in April

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 50% of the 104,000 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.

Carrier
50%
National Airspace System
24%
Late-arriving aircraft
15%
Extreme weather
10%
Security
0%

The largest share of delay minutes, 50%, 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 52,000 of the 104,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 104,097 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations are rare at 0.75%, below the national 0.90% 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.

5.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.4%. 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 last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.

What to do with this

Flying from MSP in April

For a April trip through MSP: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 83.9% on time with 0.75% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.

Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP), the whole year
MSP in July74.1%
MSP in August81.5%
MSP in September85.6%
MSP in October84.7%
MSP in November82.1%
MSP in December63.1%
MSP in January72.9%
MSP in February80.4%
MSP in March77.2%
MSP in May83.4%
MSP in June77.9%

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