OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Chicago to Atlanta

590 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on MDW–ATL arrive on time 78% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate78%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay40 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled2.0%of scheduled flights

based on 3,538 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • Delta Air Linesbest
    On-time83%
    Medianon time
    p9030 min
    Cancel3.0%
    Flights1,406
  • Southwest Airlines
    On-time77%
    Medianon time
    p9040 min
    Cancel1.2%
    Flights1,553
  • Frontier Airlines
    On-time69%
    Medianon time
    p9050 min
    Cancel1.4%
    Flights579

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline41%
  • Weather3%
  • Air traffic (NAS)21%
  • Late aircraft34%
  • Security1%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Airline.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline46%
  • Weather51%
  • Air traffic (NAS)3%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 69 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 MDW → ATL

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 — 85% on time.

  • Mornings85% on time · p90 20 min · 3,614 flights
  • Middays83% on time · p90 30 min · 3,053 flights
  • Afternoons75% on time · p90 45 min · 1,660 flights
  • Evenings73% on time · p90 55 min · 2,157 flights
  • Overnights62% on time · p90 75 min · 525 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 75% to 82% on time.

  • Wednesdays82% on time · p90 30 min · 1,506 flights
  • Tuesdays82% on time · p90 35 min · 1,537 flights
  • Thursdays81% on time · p90 35 min · 1,672 flights
  • Saturdays80% on time · p90 30 min · 1,294 flights
  • Mondays79% on time · p90 35 min · 1,646 flights
  • Fridays78% on time · p90 35 min · 1,662 flights
  • Sundays75% on time · p90 45 min · 1,692 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.