Route profile
LGA→MDW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from New York to Chicago, 725 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 14% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,493 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
LGA → MDW arrives on time 76.5% of the time; the return trip, MDW → LGA, arrives on time 73.5% of the time, a 3.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
LGA → MDW spends 28.0 minutes on the ground on a 725-mile trip: 23.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at LGA and 4.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at MDW.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where LGA to MDW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
LGA to MDW struggles most at 7 AM: 81.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 6.9 points behind the 87.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.8 points.
LGA to MDW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 78.1% arrive on time, 4 points ahead of the 74.1% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 3.5 points.
Monday is the day LGA to MDW slips furthest against routes of similar length, 74.3% on time where they average 77.1%, 2.8 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 3 points.
In December, LGA to MDW runs 7.7 points below routes of similar length, 71.0% on time to 78.7%. Against all other routes the gap is 7.8 points.
January is kinder to LGA to MDW than to routes of similar length: 84.4% on time against 79.3%, 5.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 5.3 points.
LGA to MDW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 7 AM departures | 81.0% | routes of similar length | 87.9% | −6.9 pts | 268 here, 153,106 there |
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 78.1% | routes of similar length | 74.1% | +4.0 pts | 799 here, 120,244 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 74.3% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | −2.8 pts | 1,108 here, 310,422 there |
| Month: December | 71.0% | routes of similar length | 78.7% | −7.7 pts | 607 here, 167,693 there |
| Month: January | 84.4% | routes of similar length | 79.3% | +5.1 pts | 570 here, 149,538 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 725 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 LGA → MDW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
LGA → MDW cancelled 264 of 7,493 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 28. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 56.8% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 50 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 264 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.
150 cancellations, 56.8% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
77 cancellations, 29.2% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
37 cancellations, 14.0% 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.
264 coded cancellations were recorded on LGA → MDW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
51 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 7,493 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MDW after arriving from LGA.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 39% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 23% | High risk |
| 60 min | 15% | High risk |
| 90 min | 8.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.2% | Some 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 3.52% of the time and diverts 0.40% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,199 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 51 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,493 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
LGA → MDW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.8% of the time, against 61.1% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 28.7 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 92.7% on time from 901 flights
- 7 AM: 81.0% on time from 278 flights
- 8 AM: too few flights to score
- 9 AM: 86.9% on time from 854 flights
- 10 AM: 84.2% on time from 136 flights
- 11 AM: 81.7% on time from 800 flights
- 12 PM: 80.0% on time from 154 flights
- 1 PM: 75.9% on time from 165 flights
- 2 PM: 78.1% on time from 824 flights
- 3 PM: 71.3% on time from 630 flights
- 4 PM: 68.7% on time from 415 flights
- 5 PM: 66.6% on time from 625 flights
- 6 PM: 68.1% on time from 424 flights
- 7 PM: 67.5% on time from 252 flights
- 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 61.1% on time from 924 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why LGA → MDW runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s 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 LGA → MDW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on LGA → MDW, at 50.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.8% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 61.1%.
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 | 7,493 | 76.5% | 3.52% | -5 min | 8.7% |
Other ways to fly New York to Chicago
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
LGA → MDW is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 76.5% on time, against 75.0% for LGA → ORD.
Flying to MDW from the New York area? Compare LGA, EWR, JFK for MDW, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.4%
- Feb: 86.3%
- Mar: 79.3%
- Apr: 81.2%
- May: 68.6%
- Jun: 66.3%
- Jul: 66.3%
- Aug: 76.7%
- Sep: 83.9%
- Oct: 76.5%
- Nov: 82.0%
- Dec: 71.0%
June is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 20.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 57.5% from 225 flights
- August 2023: 75.2% from 230 flights
- September 2023: 74.9% from 211 flights
- October 2023: 79.4% from 223 flights
- November 2023: 87.3% from 221 flights
- December 2023: 83.6% from 226 flights
- January 2024: 80.6% from 219 flights
- February 2024: 91.2% from 200 flights
- March 2024: 86.0% from 200 flights
- April 2024: 80.9% from 190 flights
- May 2024: 69.9% from 198 flights
- June 2024: 75.0% from 194 flights
- July 2024: 74.4% from 212 flights
- August 2024: 73.2% from 205 flights
- September 2024: 89.1% from 202 flights
- October 2024: 89.0% from 201 flights
- November 2024: 86.4% from 192 flights
- December 2024: 70.9% from 198 flights
- January 2025: 83.6% from 201 flights
- February 2025: 83.8% from 182 flights
- March 2025: 83.6% from 194 flights
- April 2025: 85.6% from 190 flights
- May 2025: 69.1% from 194 flights
- June 2025: 59.5% from 196 flights
- July 2025: 67.0% from 204 flights
- August 2025: 81.9% from 202 flights
- September 2025: 87.7% from 198 flights
- October 2025: 60.8% from 204 flights
- November 2025: 70.6% from 191 flights
- December 2025: 56.8% from 198 flights
- January 2026: 88.9% from 197 flights
- February 2026: 83.2% from 183 flights
- March 2026: 66.7% from 197 flights
- April 2026: 77.2% from 196 flights
- May 2026: 66.8% from 202 flights
- June 2026: 64.4% from 206 flights
- July 2026: 66.1% from 211 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 72.4% against 78.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,493 LGA → 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