Route profile
MDW→AUS
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Chicago to Austin, 972 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 67% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,497 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MDW → AUS arrives on time 77.6% of the time; the return trip, AUS → MDW, arrives on time 79.7% of the time, a 2.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MDW → AUS spends 19.9 minutes on the ground on a 972-mile trip: 13.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MDW and 6.2 minutes from touchdown to gate at AUS.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where MDW to AUS differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MDW to AUS struggles most at 6 PM: 52.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 15.8 points behind the 67.9% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 16.5 points.
MDW to AUS is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 3 PM: 80.4% arrive on time, 10 points ahead of the 70.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.7 points.
MDW to AUS holds up on Tuesdays better than routes of similar length do: 84.4% on time to their 80.9%, a 3.5 points lead.
August is kinder to MDW to AUS than to routes of similar length: 80.7% on time against 74.7%, 6 points better.
In May, MDW to AUS runs 5.2 points below routes of similar length, 69.4% on time to 74.6%. Against all other routes the gap is 5.9 points.
MDW to AUS against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 52.1% | routes of similar length | 67.9% | −15.8 pts | 169 here, 192,386 there |
| Hour: 3 PM departures | 80.4% | routes of similar length | 70.4% | +10.0 pts | 235 here, 182,851 there |
| Weekday: Tuesday | 84.4% | routes of similar length | 80.9% | +3.5 pts | 636 here, 407,714 there |
| Month: August | 80.7% | routes of similar length | 74.7% | +6.0 pts | 374 here, 240,679 there |
| Month: May | 69.4% | routes of similar length | 74.6% | −5.2 pts | 408 here, 251,705 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 972 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
37 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 4,497 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at AUS after arriving from MDW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 41% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.4% | Some 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 0.82% of the time and diverts 0.29% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,447 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 37 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,497 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MDW → AUS flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.0% of the time, against 63.8% for 9 PM–5 AM departures, a gap of 25.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.9% on time from 282 flights
- 6 AM: 94.9% on time from 199 flights
- 7 AM: 85.0% on time from 297 flights
- 8 AM: 85.9% on time from 434 flights
- 9 AM: 85.3% on time from 254 flights
- 10 AM: 83.8% on time from 295 flights
- 11 AM: 81.0% on time from 180 flights
- 12 PM: 75.5% on time from 239 flights
- 1 PM: 74.3% on time from 153 flights
- 2 PM: 78.9% on time from 268 flights
- 3 PM: 80.4% on time from 236 flights
- 4 PM: 67.6% on time from 227 flights
- 5 PM: 69.9% on time from 226 flights
- 6 PM: 52.1% on time from 172 flights
- 7 PM: 68.3% on time from 144 flights
- 8 PM: 76.1% on time from 311 flights
- 9 PM: 62.6% on time from 392 flights
- 10 PM: 66.3% on time from 188 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MDW → AUS 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 MDW → AUS. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on MDW → AUS, at 45.4%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 89.0% of the time and 9 PM–5 AM departures 63.8%.
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 | 4,497 | 77.6% | 0.82% | -4 min | 5.5% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 10.5 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 78.2%
- Feb: 83.5%
- Mar: 81.3%
- Apr: 77.0%
- May: 69.4%
- Jun: 71.6%
- Jul: 68.9%
- Aug: 80.7%
- Sep: 83.1%
- Oct: 83.0%
- Nov: 83.5%
- Dec: 78.9%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 14.6 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 68.8% from 142 flights
- August 2023: 80.8% from 147 flights
- September 2023: 76.9% from 144 flights
- October 2023: 73.5% from 151 flights
- November 2023: 80.5% from 123 flights
- December 2023: 83.9% from 127 flights
- January 2024: too few flights to score (107)
- February 2024: too few flights to score (96)
- March 2024: 79.5% from 122 flights
- April 2024: 75.9% from 138 flights
- May 2024: 59.4% from 145 flights
- June 2024: 77.7% from 140 flights
- July 2024: 64.5% from 145 flights
- August 2024: 79.3% from 121 flights
- September 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- October 2024: 94.2% from 137 flights
- November 2024: too few flights to score (112)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (118)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (91)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (85)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (111)
- April 2025: 80.3% from 127 flights
- May 2025: 74.1% from 135 flights
- June 2025: 69.3% from 128 flights
- July 2025: 66.2% from 133 flights
- August 2025: too few flights to score (107)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (104)
- October 2025: 82.4% from 137 flights
- November 2025: too few flights to score (103)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (104)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (88)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (86)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (106)
- April 2026: 74.8% from 124 flights
- May 2026: 75.4% from 131 flights
- June 2026: 67.4% from 133 flights
- July 2026: 76.3% from 134 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.3% against 81.2% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,497 MDW → AUS 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