Route profile
LAS→MDW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Las Vegas to Chicago, 1,521 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 63% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 8,732 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
LAS → MDW arrives on time 77.3% of the time; the return trip, MDW → LAS, arrives on time 76.5% of the time.
LAS → MDW spends 21.4 minutes on the ground on a 1,521-mile trip: 16.3 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LAS and 5.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at MDW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
On-time performance swings unusually widely by time of day here, wider than 94% of 4,023 comparable routes.
92.6% on time for 5–9 AM departures, against 60.1% for 6–9 PM.
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 4,023 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where LAS to MDW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LAS to MDW struggles most at 12 PM: 67.8% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 10.6 points behind the 78.4% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 11.6 points.
LAS to MDW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 AM: 95.8% arrive on time, 3.9 points ahead of the 91.9% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 3.6 points.
LAS to MDW holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 84.1% on time to their 78.8%, a 5.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 5 points.
Thursday is the day LAS to MDW slips furthest against routes of similar length, 73.4% on time where they average 76.7%, 3.3 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 3.4 points.
In March, LAS to MDW runs 5.5 points below routes of similar length, 72.9% on time to 78.4%. Against all other routes the gap is 5 points.
LAS to MDW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 67.8% | routes of similar length | 78.4% | −10.6 pts | 298 here, 100,688 there |
| Hour: 5 AM departures | 95.8% | routes of similar length | 91.9% | +3.9 pts | 716 here, 43,634 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 84.1% | routes of similar length | 78.8% | +5.3 pts | 866 here, 209,746 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 73.4% | routes of similar length | 76.7% | −3.3 pts | 1,340 here, 236,380 there |
| Month: March | 72.9% | routes of similar length | 78.4% | −5.5 pts | 711 here, 131,816 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 1,521 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.
Why LAS → MDW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LAS → MDW cancelled 76 of 8,732 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 115. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 64.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 178 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 76 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
49 cancellations, 64.5% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
22 cancellations, 28.9% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
5 cancellations, 6.6% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. With only one or two carriers on the route, the split mostly reflects how they file. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
76 coded cancellations were recorded on LAS → MDW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
39 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 8,732 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MDW after arriving from LAS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 22% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.7% | 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 0.87% of the time and diverts 0.61% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 8,603 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 39 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 8,732 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LAS → MDW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.6% of the time, against 60.1% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 32.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 95.8% on time from 727 flights
- 6 AM: 93.4% on time from 845 flights
- 7 AM: 91.5% on time from 574 flights
- 8 AM: 87.8% on time from 499 flights
- 9 AM: 84.9% on time from 321 flights
- 10 AM: 80.0% on time from 408 flights
- 11 AM: 80.4% on time from 652 flights
- 12 PM: 67.8% on time from 303 flights
- 1 PM: 70.2% on time from 418 flights
- 2 PM: 71.1% on time from 448 flights
- 3 PM: 63.4% on time from 527 flights
- 4 PM: 67.9% on time from 751 flights
- 5 PM: 65.2% on time from 530 flights
- 6 PM: 61.4% on time from 600 flights
- 7 PM: 58.5% on time from 402 flights
- 8 PM to 10 PM: too few flights to score
- 11 PM: 80.1% on time from 653 flights
Why LAS → MDW runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
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 LAS → MDW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on LAS → MDW, at 48.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.6% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 60.1%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 8,160 | 77.7% | 0.78% | -4 min | 5.7% |
| Frontier Airlines | 570 | 72.1% | 2.11% | -3 min | 8.3% |
Southwest Airlines flew 93.5% of the 8,730 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 2.11% of its flights here against 0.78% for Southwest Airlines.
Southwest Airlines arrived on time 5.6 percentage points more often than Frontier Airlines on this route.
Other ways to fly Las Vegas to Chicago
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LAS→ORD Las Vegas to Chicago | 16,379 | 79.6% | 1.15% | -8 min | 66 |
| LAS→MDW this route Las Vegas to Chicago | 8,732 | 77.3% | 0.87% | -4 min | 70 |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 10.7 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 77.5%
- Feb: 82.1%
- Mar: 72.9%
- Apr: 82.3%
- May: 76.6%
- Jun: 70.9%
- Jul: 65.8%
- Aug: 78.2%
- Sep: 81.1%
- Oct: 82.4%
- Nov: 84.7%
- Dec: 80.4%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 18.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 63.8% from 314 flights
- August 2023: 72.0% from 291 flights
- September 2023: 77.1% from 260 flights
- October 2023: 81.2% from 272 flights
- November 2023: 82.1% from 274 flights
- December 2023: 79.9% from 284 flights
- January 2024: 73.8% from 239 flights
- February 2024: 84.4% from 213 flights
- March 2024: 70.8% from 279 flights
- April 2024: 81.4% from 294 flights
- May 2024: 74.0% from 309 flights
- June 2024: 67.8% from 276 flights
- July 2024: 60.2% from 285 flights
- August 2024: 79.9% from 260 flights
- September 2024: 83.7% from 247 flights
- October 2024: 87.1% from 265 flights
- November 2024: 91.2% from 218 flights
- December 2024: 82.7% from 227 flights
- January 2025: 84.8% from 191 flights
- February 2025: 80.9% from 180 flights
- March 2025: 78.1% from 252 flights
- April 2025: 85.2% from 258 flights
- May 2025: 83.2% from 238 flights
- June 2025: 79.8% from 251 flights
- July 2025: 72.5% from 255 flights
- August 2025: 84.4% from 216 flights
- September 2025: 82.9% from 212 flights
- October 2025: 78.0% from 209 flights
- November 2025: 80.7% from 179 flights
- December 2025: 78.4% from 186 flights
- January 2026: 73.9% from 161 flights
- February 2026: 80.1% from 141 flights
- March 2026: 68.9% from 194 flights
- April 2026: 79.8% from 193 flights
- May 2026: 72.7% from 200 flights
- June 2026: 64.0% from 200 flights
- July 2026: 68.3% from 209 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 76.0% against 82.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 6.3 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 8,732 LAS → MDW 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