Route reliability record
LGA→MKE
New York to Milwaukee
- Flights
- 868
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 738 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 7.0% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about four flights in five arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 868 LGA to MKE flights, with a median arrival 14 minutes early.
Best time to fly LGA to MKE: a 8am–11am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 90.7% of the time and Tuesday flights 83.2%, against 81.3% for the route overall.
Set against the rest of the country, this route's record is 4 points better than the US average of 77.3%. That gap is worth roughly 40 fewer late arrivals for every thousand flights.
Key figures
On time
81.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 804 completed flights
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
7.03%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Republic
81.3% on time across 868 flights
These figures cover 868 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 14 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.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on LGA to MKE
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 868 | 81.3% | 67 min | 7.03% | B− |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly New York to Milwaukee
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 1 of the top 2 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. EWR → MKENewark to Milwaukee | Republic Airways | 78.2% | 83.6% | 6.46% | 8am–11am, Tue | YX 3697 09:00 |
| 2. LGA → MKENew York to Milwaukee | Republic Airways | 75.6% | 81.3% | 7.03% | 8am–11am, Tue | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 17 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am221 flights90.7%
- 11am–2pm210 flights85.1%
- 2pm–5pm224 flights75.1%
- 5pm–8pm27 flights—
- 8pm–5am186 flights73.8%
Scale runs 65% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the morning departure. Flights leaving between 8am–11am arrive on time 90.7% of the time, against 73.8% for the overnight 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 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 224 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter LGA to MKE 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 LGA to MKE, the best departure window is 8am–11am at 90.7% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 73.8%, a wide gap of 16.9 points. All US flights leaving 8am–11am ran 83.9%.
- 5–8am—
- 8–11am90.7%
- 11am–2pm85.1%
- 2–5pm75.1%
- 5–8pm—
- 8pm–5am73.8%
best all US flightsScale 60% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 15 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.
September is the best month on the calendar at 90.9% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 116 flights.
The day of the week is close to irrelevant here: 4 points separates the best day from the worst. Weekly demand peaks are not what drives the delays on this operation.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 49% of the 10,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 49%Carrier
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%National Airspace System
- 0%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 49%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 4,969 of the 10,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 10,066 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 90.7% on time here.
Cancellations run at 7.03%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in fifteen cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
7.8% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 738 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg runs 81.1% on time across 868 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 868 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in MKE after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 7.03% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 804 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
LGA to MKE questions
How often is LGA to MKE 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 18.7% of the 868 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is LGA to MKE compared with the rest of the country?
81.3% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of 4 points in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on LGA to MKE?
The 8am–11am departure window is the strongest at 90.7% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 73.8%, 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 April delays on LGA to MKE?
April is the weakest month at 76.1% on time, compared with 90.9% in September. Across the year that is 15 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 LGA — the return legseparate record
- LaGuardia (LGA) delay statistics
- Milwaukee Mitchell International (MKE) delay statistics
- LGA to ORD, a related route66.7%
- ORD to MKE, a related route64.3%
- LGA to ATL, a related route75.5%
- Republic Airways on-time record81.3%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. LGA to MKE and MKE to LGA are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.