Route reliability record
MSP→BOS
Minneapolis to Boston
- Flights
- 1,849
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 1,124 mi
- Carriers
- 1
This route lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about an hour on average. That rests on 1,849 MSP to BOS flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
Best time to fly MSP to BOS: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Saturday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.6% of the time and Saturday flights 86.3%, against 76.4% 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
76.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,824 completed flights
Avg delay
61 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.19%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
Delta
76.4% on time across 1,849 flights
These figures cover 1,849 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.1% 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 MSP to BOS
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 1,849 | 76.4% | 61 min | 1.19% | B |
Flight by flight
Flights on MSP to BOS
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 25 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am352 flights89.6%
- 8am–11am371 flights81.6%
- 11am–2pm290 flights70.1%
- 2pm–5pm366 flights64.9%
- 5pm–8pm122 flights68.6%
- 8pm–5am348 flights77.7%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 89.6% of the time, against 64.9% for the afternoon window. That is 25 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 371 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter MSP to BOS 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 MSP to BOS, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.6% on time and the worst is 2pm–5pm at 64.9%, a wide gap of 24.7 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.6%
- 8–11am81.6%
- 11am–2pm70.1%
- 2–5pm64.9%
- 5–8pm68.6%
- 8pm–5am77.7%
best all US flightsScale 55% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 21 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 67.2% on time, 21 points below May, the best at 87.7%. 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. August was the busiest month here, with 181 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 86.3% on time and Monday the weakest at 72.8%, a spread of 14 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
National Airspace System accounts for 54% of the 26,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 54%National Airspace System
- 31%Carrier
- 14%Late-arriving aircraft
- 1%Extreme weather
54% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 14,000 minutes out of 26,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 26,165 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.19% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.16%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually costs
8.1% 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 1,124 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 82.0% on time across 1,853 flights, 6 points above 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.
The sample behind these figures is 1,849 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 BOS after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. May runs 87.7% on time and July 67.2%, a swing of 21 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 1,824 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
MSP to BOS questions
How often is MSP to BOS 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 23.6% of the 1,849 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about an hour on average.
How reliable is MSP to BOS compared with the rest of the country?
76.4% 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 MSP to BOS?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.6% on time. The 2pm–5pm window is the weakest at 64.9%, 25 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 MSP to BOS?
July is the weakest month at 67.2% on time, compared with 87.7% in May. Across the year that is 21 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
- BOS to MSP — the return legseparate record
- Minneapolis-St Paul International (MSP) delay statistics
- Boston Logan International (BOS) delay statistics
- MSP to ORD, a related route70.0%
- DCA to BOS, a related route70.1%
- MSP to DEN, a related route77.8%
- Delta Air Lines on-time record76.4%
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
- Worst months to fly in the US, ranked by the data
Direction matters. MSP to BOS and BOS to MSP 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.