Route reliability record
MCI→PHL
Kansas City to Philadelphia
- Flights
- 903
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Distance
- 1,038 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% 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 903 MCI to PHL flights, with a median arrival 12 minutes early.
Best time to fly MCI to PHL: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 87.8% of the time and Tuesday flights 86.0%, against 81.0% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate this route from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
81.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 870 completed flights
Avg delay
110 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.54%
National rate is 1.81%
Best carrier
American
81.7% on time across 530 flights
These figures cover 903 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on MCI to PHL
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 Airwaysthin sample | 58 | 87.5% | 105 min | 3.45% | A− |
| American Airlines | 530 | 81.7% | 117 min | 0.75% | B+ |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 315 | 78.5% | 99 min | 8.25% | B− |
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 20 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am353 flights87.8%
- 8am–11am9 flights—
- 11am–2pm293 flights77.3%
- 2pm–5pm127 flights68.0%
- 5pm–8pm121 flights82.9%
- 8pm–5am—
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 68.0% for the afternoon window. That is 20 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 353 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 26 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.
July is the worst month at 63.9% on time, 26 points below May, the best at 90.2%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. May was the busiest month here, with 93 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 86.0% on time and Thursday the weakest at 73.6%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 43% of the 18,000 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.
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 43%Carrier
- 11%National Airspace System
- 3%Extreme weather
43% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 18,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 16 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 18,086 reported delay minutes.
The largest share of delay minutes, 43%, 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 7,753 of the 18,000 delay minutes reported here.
Cancellations run at 3.54%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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
8.6% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. 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 close to two hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 1,038 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 74.7% on time across 905 flights, 6 points below this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 6 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 903 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 PHL after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.54% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 870 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MCI to PHL questions
How often is MCI to PHL 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 19.0% of the 903 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is MCI to PHL compared with the rest of the country?
81.0% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.6%, a difference of 3 points in its favour. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MCI to PHL?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 87.8% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 68.0%, 20 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 July delays on MCI to PHL?
July is the weakest month at 63.9% on time, compared with 90.2% in May. Across the year that is 26 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
- PHL to MCI — the return legseparate record
- Kansas City International (MCI) delay statistics
- Philadelphia International (PHL) delay statistics
- American Airlines on MCI to PHL81.7%
- PSA Airlines on MCI to PHL78.5%
- MCI to DEN, a related route76.1%
- ATL to PHL, a related route74.9%
- MCI to ORD, a related route74.7%
- Republic Airways on-time record87.5%
- American Airlines on-time record81.7%
- PSA Airlines on-time record78.5%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. MCI to PHL and PHL to MCI 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, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.