OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

New Orleans to Chicago

825 miData through Dec 2025Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on MSY–MDW arrive on time 81% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate81%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay25 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled1.0%of scheduled flights

based on 1,016 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

  • Southwest Airlines
    On-time81%
    Medianon time
    p9025 min
    Cancel1.0%
    Flights1,016

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline25%
  • Weather7%
  • Air traffic (NAS)11%
  • Late aircraft55%
  • Security1%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly MSY → MDW

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-01 .. 2025-12).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 93% on time.

  • Mornings93% on time · p90 5 min · 1,127 flights
  • Middays85% on time · p90 20 min · 538 flights
  • Afternoons76% on time · p90 30 min · 613 flights
  • Overnights68% on time · p90 55 min · 377 flights
  • Evenings62% on time · p90 50 min · 386 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 78% to 85% on time.

  • Tuesdays85% on time · p90 20 min · 402 flights
  • Saturdays84% on time · p90 20 min · 378 flights
  • Wednesdays81% on time · p90 25 min · 399 flights
  • Mondays80% on time · p90 25 min · 437 flights
  • Sundays80% on time · p90 40 min · 554 flights
  • Fridays79% on time · p90 30 min · 442 flights
  • Thursdays78% on time · p90 30 min · 429 flights
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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.