Route reliability record

PHX→MCI

Phoenix to Kansas City

Flights: 2,472
Period: July 2025 to June 2026
Distance: 1,044 mi
Carriers: 5

This route lands a B+, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in four arrive 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by about 55 minutes on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 2,472 flights, of which American Airlines flew 597 at 78.0% on time.

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.

On time

76.5%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 2,445 completed flights

Avg delay

55 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

0.73%

National rate is 1.81%

Best carrier

American

78.0% on time across 597 flights

These figures cover 2,472 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 2 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.

Carrier by carrier

Which airline is most reliable on PHX to MCI

The two carriers here are closely matched: 3 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.

On-time performance by carrier on PHX to MCI
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	71	90.0%	91 min	1.41%	A
Frontier Airlinesthin sample	55	81.8%	46 min	0.00%	B+
Envoy Airthin sample	113	80.2%	56 min	0.88%	B+
American Airlines	597	78.0%	68 min	1.17%	B
Southwest Airlines	1,636	75.0%	50 min	0.55%	B+

No carrier stands out. American tops the table at 78.0%, 3 points clear of the bottom, which is inside the range this kind of sample moves year to year.

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 30 points, against 3 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.

5am–8am276 flights94.5%
8am–11am745 flights85.4%
11am–2pm355 flights74.7%
2pm–5pm359 flights69.2%
5pm–8pm513 flights65.5%
8pm–5am224 flights64.1%

Scale runs 55% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 64.1% on time, against 94.5% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 745 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

When delays peak on this route

This route's year swings by 16 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.

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.February best, May worst

Delays peak in May, when the on-time rate falls to 70.1%. February is the strongest month at 86.1%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 16 points. March was the busiest month here, with 272 flights.

Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 81.6% on time and Friday the weakest at 73.9%. 8 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 48% of the 32,000 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.

Late-arriving aircraft
48%
Carrier
40%
National Airspace System
9%
Extreme weather
1%
Security
1%

48% 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 32,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 36 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 31,504 reported delay minutes.

The largest share of delay minutes, 40%, 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 13,000 of the 32,000 delay minutes reported here.

Cancellations are rare at 0.73%, below the national 1.81% 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 8.1%. 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 are the about 55 minutes kind, 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. 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 runs 79.1% on time across 2,471 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 2,472 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.

What to do with this

Booking this route

Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 86.1% on time and May 70.1%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of May before you think about anything else. 2,445 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Common questions

PHX to MCI questions

How often is PHX to MCI delayed?

About one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 23.5% of the 2,472 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by about 55 minutes on average.

Which airline is most reliable on PHX to MCI?

American Airlines leads at 78.0% on time across 597 flights. Southwest Airlines is at the other end on 75.0%, a gap of 3 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 PHX to MCI?

The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 94.5% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 64.1%, 30 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 May delays on PHX to MCI?

May is the weakest month at 70.1% on time, compared with 86.1% in February. Across the year that is 16 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.

Where to go next

Direction matters. PHX to MCI and MCI to PHX are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures