Route reliability record
MKE→DFW
Milwaukee to Dallas-Fort Worth
- Flights
- 1,079
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 853 mi
- Carriers
- 3
This route carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.2% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four 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 1,079 MKE to DFW flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Best time to fly MKE to DFW: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 83.8% of the time and Tuesday flights 82.4%, against 76.0% 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
76.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,040 completed flights
Avg delay
114 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.24%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
American
75.8% on time across 1,070 flights
These figures cover 1,079 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
Which airline is most reliable on MKE to DFW
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 5 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| American Airlines | 1,070 | 75.8% | 115 min | 3.27% | B− |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 4 | 75.0% | 38 min | 0.00% | B+ |
Flight by flight
Flights on MKE to DFW
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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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 18 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am364 flights83.8%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm355 flights72.0%
- 2pm–5pm162 flights79.7%
- 5pm–8pm198 flights65.6%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 83.8% of the time, against 65.6% for the evening window. That is 18 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 364 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MKE to DFW 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 MKE to DFW, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 83.8% on time and the worst is 5pm–8pm at 65.6%, a wide gap of 18.2 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am83.8%
- 8–11am—
- 11am–2pm72.0%
- 2–5pm79.7%
- 5–8pm65.6%
- 8pm–5am—
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%. Cells under 30 flights show a dash.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 31 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.
June is the worst month at 57.6% on time, 31 points below February, the best at 88.2%. 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. January was the busiest month here, with 93 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.4% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.8%, a spread of 13 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Carrier accounts for 54% of the 29,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 54%Carrier
- 30%Late-arriving aircraft
- 12%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
The largest share of delay minutes, 54%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. It accounts for 15,000 of the 29,000 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 28,541 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 83.8% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.24%, against 1.89% 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
9.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 853 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 68.7% on time across 1,079 flights, 7 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 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 1,079 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 DFW after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.24% 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. 1,040 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MKE to DFW questions
How often is MKE to DFW delayed?
About one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 24.0% of the 1,079 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by close to two hours on average.
How reliable is MKE to DFW compared with the rest of the country?
76.0% of flights arrive on time here against a national 77.3%, a difference of about a point against it. That is worth a B− on this site's grading scale.
What time of day has the fewest delays on MKE to DFW?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 83.8% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 65.6%, 18 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 June delays on MKE to DFW?
June is the weakest month at 57.6% on time, compared with 88.2% in February. Across the year that is 31 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
- DFW to MKE — the return legseparate record
- Milwaukee Mitchell International (MKE) delay statistics
- Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) delay statistics
- MKE to ORD, a related route68.4%
- ORD to DFW, a related route70.4%
- MKE to DEN, a related route78.8%
- PSA Airlines on-time record100.0%
- American Airlines on-time record75.8%
- Envoy Air on-time record75.0%
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Direction matters. MKE to DFW and DFW to MKE 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.