Route profile
BOS→MKE
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Boston to Milwaukee, 860 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 71% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 2,515 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
BOS → MKE arrives on time 83.7% of the time; the return trip, MKE → BOS, arrives on time 76.3% of the time, a 7.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
BOS → MKE spends 27.9 minutes on the ground on an 860-mile trip: 22.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at BOS and 5.8 minutes from touchdown to gate at MKE.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 94% of 3,357 comparable routes.
88.2% on time in its best month (March) against 78.0% in its worst (July).
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 3,357 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where BOS to MKE differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
BOS to MKE is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 4 PM: 82.8% arrive on time, 14.4 points ahead of the 68.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.1 points.
BOS to MKE struggles most at 7 AM: 80.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.5 points behind the 88.1% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.2 points.
BOS to MKE holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 84.7% on time to their 74.1%, a 10.6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 9.9 points.
June is kinder to BOS to MKE than to routes of similar length: 86.2% on time against 71.6%, 14.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 13.5 points.
JetBlue does better on BOS to MKE than on its routes of similar length: 78.7% on time here, 70.5% there, 8.2 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 6.5 points.
BOS to MKE against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 4 PM departures | 82.8% | routes of similar length | 68.4% | +14.4 pts | 290 here, 145,672 there |
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 80.6% | routes of similar length | 88.1% | −7.5 pts | 432 here, 204,258 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 84.7% | routes of similar length | 74.1% | +10.6 pts | 347 here, 390,202 there |
| Month: June | 86.2% | routes of similar length | 71.6% | +14.6 pts | 246 here, 218,564 there |
| Airline: JetBlue | 78.7% | routes of similar length | 70.5% | +8.2 pts | 698 here, 91,162 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 860 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
34 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 2,515 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MKE after arriving from BOS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 31% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.8% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 2.9% | Low risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.63% of the time and diverts 0.28% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,467 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 34 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 2,515 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
BOS → MKE flights departing 9 AM–12 PM arrived on time 89.9% of the time, against 78.8% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 11.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 80.6% on time from 435 flights
- 8 AM: 90.4% on time from 200 flights
- 9 AM: 91.1% on time from 499 flights
- 10 AM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 78.8% on time from 185 flights
- 3 PM: 85.0% on time from 216 flights
- 4 PM: 82.8% on time from 302 flights
- 5 PM: 70.7% on time from 273 flights
- 6 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why BOS → MKE runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for BOS → MKE. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 1,668 | 85.8% | 2.28% | -10 min | 4.7% |
| JetBlue | 700 | 78.7% | 0.14% | -7 min | 8.9% |
Republic Airways flew 70.4% of the 2,368 flights listed. Republic Airways cancelled 2.28% of its flights here against 0.14% for JetBlue.
Republic Airways arrived on time 7.1 percentage points more often than JetBlue on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 6.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan to Feb: no data
- Mar: 88.2%
- Apr: 87.0%
- May: 78.8%
- Jun: 86.2%
- Jul: 78.0%
- Aug: 80.4%
- Sep: 80.7%
- Oct: 85.2%
- Nov: 83.7%
- Dec: 87.0%
July is historically the weakest month and March the strongest, a spread of 10.2 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 82.7% against 84.4% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 2,515 BOS → MKE flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed