Route profile
MCI→MDW
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Kansas City to Chicago, 405 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 79% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 6,723 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MCI → MDW arrives on time 82.8% of the time; the return trip, MDW → MCI, arrives on time 78.6% of the time, a 4.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MCI → MDW spends 16.7 minutes on the ground on a 405-mile trip: 11.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MCI 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 MCI to MDW differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MCI to MDW is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 81.5% arrive on time, 12.9 points ahead of the 68.6% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.1 points.
MCI to MDW holds up on Wednesdays better than routes of similar length do: 87.6% on time to their 82.1%, a 5.5 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6.8 points.
September is kinder to MCI to MDW than to routes of similar length: 89.3% on time against 82.3%, 7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.9 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on MCI to MDW than on its routes of similar length: 82.8% on time here, 78.8% there, 4 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.4 points.
MCI to MDW against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 81.5% | routes of similar length | 68.6% | +12.9 pts | 298 here, 72,680 there |
| Weekday: Wednesday | 87.6% | routes of similar length | 82.1% | +5.5 pts | 968 here, 198,838 there |
| Month: September | 89.3% | routes of similar length | 82.3% | +7.0 pts | 561 here, 117,907 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 82.8% | routes of similar length | 78.8% | +4.0 pts | 6,628 here, 472,744 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 405 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 MCI → MDW flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MCI → MDW cancelled 81 of 6,723 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 83. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 88.9% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 93 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 81 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.
72 cancellations, 88.9% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
9 cancellations, 11.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
0 cancellations, 0.0% 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.
81 coded cancellations were recorded on MCI → MDW; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
29 min late
against a median of 5 min early
Percentiles over 6,723 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MDW after arriving from MCI.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 9.5% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.5% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 2.7% | 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 1.20% of the time and diverts 0.21% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 6,628 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 29 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 6,723 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MCI → MDW flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 92.5% of the time, against 70.0% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 22.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 94.2% on time from 640 flights
- 6 AM: 95.3% on time from 377 flights
- 7 AM: 88.9% on time from 308 flights
- 8 AM: 89.5% on time from 365 flights
- 9 AM: 93.4% on time from 231 flights
- 10 AM: 89.1% on time from 604 flights
- 11 AM: 88.8% on time from 381 flights
- 12 PM: 84.8% on time from 326 flights
- 1 PM: 87.6% on time from 359 flights
- 2 PM: 79.5% on time from 335 flights
- 3 PM: 77.2% on time from 575 flights
- 4 PM: 72.2% on time from 416 flights
- 5 PM: 72.7% on time from 368 flights
- 6 PM: 74.5% on time from 423 flights
- 7 PM: 65.9% on time from 466 flights
- 8 PM: 81.5% on time from 303 flights
- 9 PM: 70.2% on time from 162 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MCI → 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 MCI → MDW. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MCI → MDW, at 59.3%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 92.5% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 70.0%.
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 | 6,723 | 82.8% | 1.20% | -5 min | 4.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.2 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 83.8%
- Feb: 87.9%
- Mar: 85.3%
- Apr: 79.9%
- May: 76.4%
- Jun: 79.1%
- Jul: 76.5%
- Aug: 81.0%
- Sep: 89.3%
- Oct: 85.1%
- Nov: 88.7%
- Dec: 85.9%
May is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 12.9 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 69.7% from 224 flights
- August 2023: 79.3% from 232 flights
- September 2023: 89.1% from 192 flights
- October 2023: 82.8% from 203 flights
- November 2023: 90.2% from 193 flights
- December 2023: 90.6% from 200 flights
- January 2024: 78.9% from 151 flights
- February 2024: 91.1% from 124 flights
- March 2024: 92.0% from 177 flights
- April 2024: 77.0% from 183 flights
- May 2024: 71.4% from 186 flights
- June 2024: 82.9% from 193 flights
- July 2024: 82.7% from 203 flights
- August 2024: 86.4% from 198 flights
- September 2024: 94.8% from 191 flights
- October 2024: 94.9% from 199 flights
- November 2024: 90.5% from 169 flights
- December 2024: 88.8% from 171 flights
- January 2025: 85.7% from 153 flights
- February 2025: 84.0% from 145 flights
- March 2025: 87.5% from 173 flights
- April 2025: 79.0% from 176 flights
- May 2025: 83.5% from 182 flights
- June 2025: 81.4% from 195 flights
- July 2025: 71.2% from 203 flights
- August 2025: 77.3% from 189 flights
- September 2025: 83.7% from 178 flights
- October 2025: 77.8% from 198 flights
- November 2025: 84.8% from 157 flights
- December 2025: 77.6% from 165 flights
- January 2026: 86.2% from 152 flights
- February 2026: 89.0% from 137 flights
- March 2026: 76.0% from 174 flights
- April 2026: 84.0% from 172 flights
- May 2026: 74.4% from 177 flights
- June 2026: 73.1% from 195 flights
- July 2026: 82.5% from 213 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.2% against 85.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 5.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 6,723 MCI → 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