Route profile
MDW→BUR
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Chicago to Burbank, 1,740 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 939 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MDW → BUR arrives on time 75.4% of the time; the return trip, BUR → MDW, arrives on time 88.6% of the time, a 13.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MDW → BUR spends 18.4 minutes on the ground on a 1,740-mile trip: 15.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MDW and 3.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at BUR.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Which day you fly matters unusually much here, a wider weekday spread than 99% of 4,467 comparable routes.
82.8% on time on a typical Wednesday, against 62.4% on a Sunday.
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where MDW to BUR differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
Sunday is the day MDW to BUR slips furthest against routes of similar length, 62.4% on time where they average 75.4%, 13 points lower. Against all other routes the gap is 12.4 points.
MDW to BUR against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekday: Sunday | 62.4% | routes of similar length | 75.4% | −13.0 pts | 133 here, 203,456 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 1,740 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 1 min early
Percentiles over 939 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at BUR after arriving from MDW.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 47% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 24% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 5.7% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.5% | 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 0.32% 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 934 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 939 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why MDW → BUR 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 MDW → BUR. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 939 | 75.4% | 0.32% | -1 min | 5.9% |
Other ways to fly Chicago to Los Angeles
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD→LAX Chicago to Los Angeles | 21,173 | 76.4% | 1.19% | -6 min | 61 |
| MDW→BUR this route Chicago to Burbank | 939 | 75.4% | 0.32% | -1 min | 71 |
MDW → BUR is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 75.4% on time, against 76.4% for ORD → LAX.
Flying to BUR from the Chicago area? Compare MDW, ORD for BUR, 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 20.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.3% against 77.1% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 939 MDW → BUR 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