Route profile
MKE→LGA
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Milwaukee to New York, 738 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 22% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,207 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MKE → LGA arrives on time 83.4% of the time; the return trip, LGA → MKE, arrives on time 83.7% of the time.
MKE → LGA spends 25.3 minutes on the ground on a 738-mile trip: 16.8 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MKE and 8.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at LGA.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where MKE to LGA differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MKE to LGA is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 2 PM: 82.5% arrive on time, 8.2 points ahead of the 74.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.9 points.
MKE to LGA holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 86.4% on time to their 77.1%, a 9.3 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 9.2 points.
June is kinder to MKE to LGA than to routes of similar length: 82.9% on time against 72.0%, 10.9 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.2 points.
SkyWest Airlines does better on MKE to LGA than on its routes of similar length: 85.6% on time here, 82.0% there, 3.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 4.3 points.
Endeavor Air’s flights on MKE to LGA arrive on time 82.7% of the time, 2.5 points below the 85.2% it manages on its routes of similar length.
MKE to LGA against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 82.5% | routes of similar length | 74.3% | +8.2 pts | 473 here, 122,830 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 86.4% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | +9.3 pts | 472 here, 311,076 there |
| Month: June | 82.9% | routes of similar length | 72.0% | +10.9 pts | 275 here, 173,519 there |
| Airline: SkyWest Airlines | 85.6% | routes of similar length | 82.0% | +3.6 pts | 889 here, 101,286 there |
| Airline: Endeavor Air | 82.7% | routes of similar length | 85.2% | −2.5 pts | 903 here, 20,210 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 738 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 → LGA flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
MKE → LGA cancelled 132 of 3,207 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 24. The reason filed most often was the air traffic system, 40.2% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 61 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 132 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
53 cancellations, 40.2% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
44 cancellations, 33.3% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
35 cancellations, 26.5% 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. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
132 coded cancellations were recorded on MKE → LGA; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
41 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 3,207 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at LGA after arriving from MKE.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 27% | High risk |
| 45 min | 16% | High risk |
| 60 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 7.9% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.4% | 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 4.12% of the time and diverts 0.25% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 3,067 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 41 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,207 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MKE → LGA flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.4% of the time, against 75.8% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 12.6 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 89.1% on time from 730 flights
- 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 84.5% on time from 123 flights
- 9 AM: too few flights to score
- 10 AM: 85.5% on time from 604 flights
- 11 AM: 82.8% on time from 157 flights
- 12 PM to 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 82.5% on time from 502 flights
- 3 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
- 5 PM: 74.5% on time from 599 flights
- 6 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why MKE → LGA runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for MKE → LGA. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 1,361 | 82.4% | 5.95% | -12 min | 8.5% |
| Endeavor Air | 932 | 82.7% | 3.00% | -13 min | 7.9% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 914 | 85.6% | 2.52% | -9 min | 7.3% |
Republic Airways flew 42.4% of the 3,207 flights listed. Republic Airways cancelled 5.95% of its flights here against 2.52% for SkyWest Airlines.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 3.2 percentage points more often than Republic Airways on this route.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Monday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 5.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 75.9%
- Feb: 89.8%
- Mar: 79.2%
- Apr: 84.0%
- May: 78.0%
- Jun: 82.9%
- Jul: 78.6%
- Aug: 84.3%
- Sep: 85.8%
- Oct: 91.3%
- Nov: 92.3%
- Dec: 80.6%
January is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 16.4 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 81.4% against 85.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,207 MKE → LGA 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