OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Chicago to Oakland

1,844 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on MDW–OAK arrive on time 63% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate63%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay50 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled1.4%of scheduled flights

based on 432 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • Southwest Airlines
    On-time63%
    Median5 min
    p9050 min
    Cancel1.4%
    Flights432

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline39%
  • Weather1%
  • Air traffic (NAS)19%
  • Late aircraft41%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline0%
  • Weather83%
  • Air traffic (NAS)17%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 6 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 → OAK

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 — 84% on time.

  • Mornings84% on time · p90 20 min · 651 flights
  • Middays71% on time · p90 45 min · 239 flights
  • Afternoons70% on time · p90 50 min · 197 flights · limited
  • Evenings69% on time · p90 50 min · 208 flights
  • Overnights53% on time · p90 70 min · 435 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 67% to 77% on time.

  • Tuesdays77% on time · p90 35 min · 247 flights
  • Wednesdays72% on time · p90 40 min · 247 flights
  • Saturdays71% on time · p90 45 min · 242 flights
  • Thursdays71% on time · p90 35 min · 255 flights
  • Fridays71% on time · p90 45 min · 256 flights
  • Mondays68% on time · p90 45 min · 250 flights
  • Sundays67% on time · p90 55 min · 233 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.