Route reliability record
MCI→PHX
Kansas City to Phoenix
- Flights
- 2,479
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,044 mi
- Carriers
- 5
This route 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 about an hour on average. That rests on 2,479 MCI to PHX flights, of which American Airlines flew 587 at 82.8% on time.
Best time to fly MCI to PHX: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 91.4% of the time and Saturday flights 86.5%, against 78.9% for the route overall.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, 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
78.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,462 completed flights
Avg delay
65 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.61%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
82.8% on time across 587 flights
These figures cover 2,479 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. The median arrival is 4 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 MCI to PHX
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. American Airlines arrives on time 82.8% of the time; Southwest Airlines manages 76.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,649 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 118 | 89.7% | 35 min | 0.85% | A+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 55 | 83.6% | 53 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 587 | 82.8% | 112 min | 1.02% | B |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,649 | 76.8% | 53 min | 0.42% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 70 | 75.4% | 85 min | 1.43% | B |
American leads Southwest by 6 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Kansas City to Phoenix
Every airline on this route, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time, with its best departure time and most punctual flight number. No nearby airport pair beat these.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. MCI → PHXKansas City to Phoenix | American Airlines | 82.0% | 82.8% | 1.02% | 8am–11am, Sat | — |
| 2. MCI → PHXKansas City to Phoenix | Southwest Airlines | 76.5% | 76.8% | 0.42% | 5am–8am, Sat | — |
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 40 points, against 6 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am526 flights91.4%
- 8am–11am471 flights86.6%
- 11am–2pm256 flights82.0%
- 2pm–5pm634 flights77.4%
- 5pm–8pm447 flights65.2%
- 8pm–5am145 flights51.7%
Scale runs 45% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 51.7% on time, against 91.4% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 2pm–5pm window is the busiest, with 634 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MCI to PHX 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 MCI to PHX, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 91.4% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 51.7%, a wide gap of 39.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am91.4%
- 8–11am86.6%
- 11am–2pm82.0%
- 2–5pm77.4%
- 5–8pm65.2%
- 8pm–5am51.7%
best all US flightsScale 45% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
Twelve months, one bar each, drawn from the same 2,479 flights. The strip shows how much of this route's record is set by the calendar rather than by the operation.
Delays peak in November, when the on-time rate falls to 73.3%. March is the strongest month at 84.4%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 11 points. March was the busiest month here, with 272 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 86.5% on time and Sunday the weakest at 70.0%, a spread of 17 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 34,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 32%Carrier
- 14%National Airspace System
- 2%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 34,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 21 to one. The split is drawn from 33,744 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 91.4% on time here.
Cancellations are rare at 0.61%, below the national 1.89% 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
6.0% 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 1,044 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 76.0% on time across 2,474 flights, within 3 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 2,479 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in PHX after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: avoid the 8pm–5am departure. It runs 51.7% on time against 91.4% for the 5am–8am slot, and that 40 points is the largest single thing you control here. American Airlines is the strongest operator if the fares are close. 2,462 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MCI to PHX questions
How often is MCI to PHX 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 21.1% of the 2,479 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on MCI to PHX?
American Airlines leads at 82.8% on time across 587 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 76.8%, a gap of 6 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 MCI to PHX?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 91.4% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 51.7%, 40 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 November delays on MCI to PHX?
November is the weakest month at 73.3% on time, compared with 84.4% in March. Across the year that is 11 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
- PHX to MCI — the return legseparate record
- Kansas City International (MCI) delay statistics
- Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) delay statistics
- Envoy Air on MCI to PHX89.7%
- American Airlines on MCI to PHX82.8%
- Southwest Airlines on MCI to PHX76.8%
- MCI to DEN, a related route78.1%
- DEN to PHX, a related route75.6%
- MCI to ORD, a related route74.6%
- Envoy Air on-time record89.7%
- Frontier Airlines on-time record83.6%
- American Airlines on-time record82.8%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Direction matters. MCI to PHX and PHX 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, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.