Route profile
MKE→ATL
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Milwaukee to Atlanta, 669 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 87% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 7,375 flights. How this is calculated
MKE → ATL arrives on time 87.6% of the time; the return trip, ATL → MKE, arrives on time 82.1% of the time, a 5.5-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MKE → ATL spends 22.3 minutes on the ground on a 669-mile trip: 13.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MKE and 8.9 minutes from touchdown to gate at ATL.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every airline on this route performs about the same, a narrower carrier gap than 92% of 2,692 comparable routes.
Delta Air Lines (87.9% on time) and Southwest Airlines (86.4%) are close together here.
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 2,692 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where MKE to ATL differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MKE to ATL is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 84.0% arrive on time, 14.8 points ahead of the 69.2% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.2 points.
MKE to ATL holds up on Thursdays better than routes of similar length do: 88.5% on time to their 76.7%, a 11.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 11.7 points.
June is kinder to MKE to ATL than to routes of similar length: 88.3% on time against 72.2%, 16.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 15.6 points.
Southwest Airlines does better on MKE to ATL than on its routes of similar length: 86.4% on time here, 77.6% there, 8.8 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 9 points.
MKE to ATL against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 5 PM departures | 84.0% | routes of similar length | 69.2% | +14.8 pts | 480 here, 136,080 there |
| Weekday: Thursday | 88.5% | routes of similar length | 76.7% | +11.8 pts | 1,103 here, 339,335 there |
| Month: June | 88.3% | routes of similar length | 72.2% | +16.1 pts | 599 here, 189,402 there |
| Airline: Southwest Airlines | 86.4% | routes of similar length | 77.6% | +8.8 pts | 839 here, 555,704 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 669 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 MKE → ATL flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MKE → ATL cancelled 92 of 7,375 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 80. The reason filed most often was the airline, 67.4% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 119 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 92 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
62 cancellations, 67.4% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
30 cancellations, 32.6% 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.
92 coded cancellations were recorded on MKE → ATL; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
22 min late
against a median of 13 min early
Percentiles over 7,375 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ATL after arriving from MKE.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 22% | High risk |
| 45 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 7.9% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 4.5% | Low 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 1.25% of the time and diverts 0.27% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 7,263 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 22 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 7,375 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MKE → ATL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 91.0% of the time, against 77.4% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 13.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 90.5% on time from 761 flights
- 6 AM: 92.8% on time from 916 flights
- 7 AM: 89.9% on time from 1,054 flights
- 8 AM to 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 91.3% on time from 1,010 flights
- 11 AM: 86.7% on time from 199 flights
- 12 PM: 89.3% on time from 621 flights
- 1 PM: 87.1% on time from 326 flights
- 2 PM: 84.2% on time from 429 flights
- 3 PM: 82.6% on time from 396 flights
- 4 PM: 83.5% on time from 424 flights
- 5 PM: 84.0% on time from 485 flights
- 6 PM: 77.6% on time from 707 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MKE → ATL 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for MKE → ATL. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 6,469 | 87.9% | 1.33% | -13 min | 4.6% |
| Southwest Airlines | 844 | 86.4% | 0.59% | -10 min | 3.9% |
Delta Air Lines flew 88.5% of the 7,313 flights listed.
Carriers on this route performed within a couple of percentage points of each other.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL1221 (6:00 AM) arrived on time 91.5% of the time, 6.2 points more often than DL1246 (2:59 PM) at 85.3%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 7.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 80.1%
- Feb: 89.0%
- Mar: 84.9%
- Apr: 90.0%
- May: 85.1%
- Jun: 88.3%
- Jul: 81.0%
- Aug: 88.4%
- Sep: 92.7%
- Oct: 95.8%
- Nov: 91.2%
- Dec: 85.3%
January is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 15.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 78.6% from 223 flights
- August 2023: 80.6% from 230 flights
- September 2023: 91.7% from 217 flights
- October 2023: 97.2% from 214 flights
- November 2023: 91.6% from 214 flights
- December 2023: 92.5% from 214 flights
- January 2024: 70.5% from 189 flights
- February 2024: 89.3% from 169 flights
- March 2024: 80.4% from 194 flights
- April 2024: 89.1% from 202 flights
- May 2024: 79.3% from 222 flights
- June 2024: 88.7% from 212 flights
- July 2024: 77.6% from 227 flights
- August 2024: 93.7% from 226 flights
- September 2024: 91.6% from 214 flights
- October 2024: 95.9% from 222 flights
- November 2024: 94.1% from 203 flights
- December 2024: 81.0% from 196 flights
- January 2025: 86.9% from 185 flights
- February 2025: 87.1% from 171 flights
- March 2025: 86.4% from 202 flights
- April 2025: 88.8% from 173 flights
- May 2025: 88.3% from 197 flights
- June 2025: 86.2% from 196 flights
- July 2025: 88.8% from 199 flights
- August 2025: 91.3% from 198 flights
- September 2025: 95.2% from 187 flights
- October 2025: 94.0% from 201 flights
- November 2025: 87.1% from 176 flights
- December 2025: 81.4% from 183 flights
- January 2026: 83.5% from 169 flights
- February 2026: 90.7% from 162 flights
- March 2026: 88.2% from 182 flights
- April 2026: 92.0% from 193 flights
- May 2026: 88.3% from 216 flights
- June 2026: 89.9% from 201 flights
- July 2026: 79.5% from 196 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 88.5% against 89.3% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 7,375 MKE → ATL 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