Holiday travel
Labor Day at MKE
Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, Milwaukee, WI. July 2023 – July 2026. Set against MKE’s own ordinary days of the same weekday in the weeks around each holiday.
The window, year by year
The window runs the Saturday through the Monday, around Labor Day (the first Monday of September). In the data: Sep 2–4, 2023; Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024; Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025. Three windows are in the data: enough to see whether a day repeats, not enough to call it a rule.
Compared with ordinary days, Labor Day flights were better in two and about the same in one of the three years. The gap ran from 3.9 points above usual in 2025 to 7.3 points above usual in 2024.
0.93% of scheduled departures were cancelled across the Labor Day windows, against 1.63% on ordinary days of the same weekdays. It was lower in one of the three years.
| Year | Departures | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Sep 2–4, 2023 | 204 | 89.6% | 82.7% | +6.9better | 0.98% | 1.63% |
| 2024Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024 | 224 | 90.0% | 82.7% | +7.3better | 0.45% | 1.63% |
| 2025Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025 | 219 | 86.6% | 82.7% | +3.9about the same | 1.37% | 1.64% |
| All years3 windows | 647 | 88.7% | 82.7% | +6.0better | 0.93% | 1.63% |
Day by day
No single day has enough flights in one year to compare the years, so the days are ranked on all three years pooled: Labor Day ran lowest (88.0% on time, 6.5 points above usual) and the Saturday before Labor Day highest (89.6%, 4.0 points above usual). This cannot say whether the same day was worst or best in each year.
- Better than usual
- Worse than usual
- About the same
- What ordinary days of the same weekday had
- Lowest to highest single year
- Lighter bars: days just outside the window
Bars show the on-time arrival rate and start at 70%, not zero.
| Day | Departures against an ordinary day | On time | Usual | Gap, points | Cancelled | Each year: 2023, 2024, 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thursday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 81.9% | 79.5% | +2.4about the same | 1.20% | — · — · — |
| Friday beforeoutside the window | about the same | 79.8% | 80.8% | −1.0about the same | 0.41% | — · — · — |
| Saturday before | 5% fewer | 89.6% | 85.6% | +4.0about the same | 2.02% | — · — · — |
| Sunday before | 19% fewer | 88.7% | 81.5% | +7.2better | 0.49% | — · — · — |
| Labor Day | 2% fewer | 88.0% | 81.5% | +6.5better | 0.41% | — · — · — |
| Tuesday afteroutside the window | 2% fewer | 86.5% | 84.3% | +2.2about the same | 0.00% | — · — · — |
A dash means fewer than 120 flights stood behind the figure, or behind the ordinary days it would be compared with: too few to print a rate, and nothing is estimated in its place. “Usual” is what ordinary days of the same weekday had at the same place in the weeks around the holiday, weighted by the flights being compared.
Which departure times held up
The busiest days at MKE were Sunday, Sep 3, 2023 (66 departures), Monday, Sep 4, 2023 (75 departures), Sunday, Sep 1, 2024 (71 departures), Monday, Sep 2, 2024 (84 departures), Sunday, Aug 31, 2025 (69 departures), and Monday, Sep 1, 2025 (84 departures).
Across the whole window, flights leaving 5–9 AM had the highest on-time rate: 95.6%, 6.9 points above usual for that time of day. Those leaving 3–6 PM had the lowest: 81.7%, still 10.3 points above usual for that time of day.
The holiday helped flights leaving 3–6 PM the most (10.3 points above usual for that time of day) and those leaving 12–3 PM the least (5.8 points above).
| Leaving | On time, whole window | Usual | Gap, points | On time, busiest days | Usual | Gap, points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 95.6% | 88.7% | +6.9better | 95.3% | 89.0% | +6.3better |
| 9 AM–12 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 12–3 PM | 89.2% | 83.4% | +5.8about the same | — | — | — |
| 3–6 PM | 81.7% | 71.4% | +10.3better | — | — | — |
| 6–9 PM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 9 PM–5 AM | — | — | — | — | — | — |
MKE beside every covered airport
Storms and outages move whole regions at once. This puts MKE’s year beside the year of all covered airports together, each against its own usual, to show whether MKE did better or worse than the network.
| Year | MKE on time | MKE, gap from usual | All airports on time | All airports, gap from usual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023Sep 2–4, 2023 | 89.6% | +6.9 | 87.4% | +7.6 |
| 2024Aug 31 – Sep 2, 2024 | 90.0% | +7.3 | 82.1% | +2.4 |
| 2025Aug 30 – Sep 1, 2025 | 86.6% | +3.9 | 82.2% | +2.5 |
For every holiday at once, see the five holidays at MKE, or the network view.