OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Atlanta to Chicago

590 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on ATL–MDW arrive on time 74% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate74%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay45 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled1.9%of scheduled flights

based on 3,535 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

Too close to call — no single carrier is clearly more on-time here.

  • Delta Air Lines
    On-time78%
    Medianon time
    p9035 min
    Cancel2.7%
    Flights1,406
  • Southwest Airlines
    On-time75%
    Medianon time
    p9040 min
    Cancel1.4%
    Flights1,550
  • Frontier Airlines
    On-time63%
    Medianon time
    p90105 min
    Cancel1.2%
    Flights579

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline36%
  • Weather5%
  • Air traffic (NAS)14%
  • Late aircraft45%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline45%
  • Weather48%
  • Air traffic (NAS)6%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 66 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly ATL → MDW

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 87% on time.

  • Mornings87% on time · p90 15 min · 2,882 flights
  • Middays81% on time · p90 30 min · 2,296 flights
  • Afternoons76% on time · p90 45 min · 2,063 flights
  • Evenings68% on time · p90 60 min · 1,483 flights
  • Overnights66% on time · p90 75 min · 2,318 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 72% to 82% on time.

  • Wednesdays82% on time · p90 30 min · 1,510 flights
  • Tuesdays81% on time · p90 35 min · 1,542 flights
  • Saturdays78% on time · p90 40 min · 1,290 flights
  • Mondays76% on time · p90 50 min · 1,648 flights
  • Fridays75% on time · p90 45 min · 1,673 flights
  • Thursdays75% on time · p90 50 min · 1,681 flights
  • Sundays72% on time · p90 50 min · 1,698 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.