Route profile
MSP→MCI
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Minneapolis to Kansas City, 393 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 73% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,308 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MSP → MCI arrives on time 82.4% of the time; the return trip, MCI → MSP, arrives on time 85.0% of the time, a 2.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
MSP → MCI spends 22.6 minutes on the ground on a 393-mile trip: 16.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSP and 5.7 minutes from touchdown to gate at MCI.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where MSP to MCI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MSP to MCI is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 12 PM: 90.0% arrive on time, 9.6 points ahead of the 80.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 10.6 points.
MSP to MCI holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 81.8% on time to their 74.8%, a 7 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 7 points.
April is kinder to MSP to MCI than to routes of similar length: 86.1% on time against 79.4%, 6.7 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 6.2 points.
MSP to MCI against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 90.0% | routes of similar length | 80.4% | +9.6 pts | 411 here, 86,725 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 81.8% | routes of similar length | 74.8% | +7.0 pts | 627 here, 232,228 there |
| Month: April | 86.1% | routes of similar length | 79.4% | +6.7 pts | 361 here, 128,800 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 393 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
36 min late
against a median of 9 min early
Percentiles over 4,308 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at MCI after arriving from MSP.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 30% | High risk |
| 45 min | 17% | High risk |
| 60 min | 11% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.0% | 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 0.97% of the time and diverts 0.07% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,263 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 36 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,308 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MSP → MCI flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 89.7% of the time, against 76.6% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 13.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 94.8% on time from 233 flights
- 8 AM: 88.4% on time from 540 flights
- 9 AM: 89.5% on time from 211 flights
- 10 AM: 83.9% on time from 218 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 90.0% on time from 411 flights
- 1 PM: 84.1% on time from 553 flights
- 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 80.1% on time from 584 flights
- 4 PM: 70.0% on time from 301 flights
- 5 PM to 8 PM: too few flights to score
- 9 PM: 76.9% on time from 1,081 flights
- 10 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why MSP → MCI 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 MSP → MCI. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,296 | 82.2% | 0.82% | -10 min | 6.2% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 564 | 80.3% | 1.95% | -4 min | 8.5% |
| Southwest Airlines | 424 | 85.7% | 0.94% | -11 min | 2.6% |
Delta Air Lines flew 76.9% of the 4,284 flights listed. SkyWest Airlines cancelled 1.95% of its flights here against 0.82% for Delta Air Lines.
Southwest Airlines arrived on time 5.4 percentage points more often than SkyWest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
| Flight | Scheduled | Operations | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| DL1657 Delta Air Lines | 9:45 PM | 783 | 73.6% |
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 6.3 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 81.6%
- Feb: 86.4%
- Mar: 81.7%
- Apr: 86.1%
- May: 81.3%
- Jun: 76.1%
- Jul: 73.3%
- Aug: 81.8%
- Sep: 88.0%
- Oct: 85.3%
- Nov: 88.4%
- Dec: 82.9%
July is historically the weakest month and November the strongest, a spread of 15.1 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 75.4% from 139 flights
- August 2023: 84.8% from 151 flights
- September 2023: 86.4% from 147 flights
- October 2023: 82.7% from 163 flights
- November 2023: 88.8% from 160 flights
- December 2023: 95.0% from 160 flights
- January 2024: 80.8% from 149 flights
- February 2024: 91.7% from 132 flights
- March 2024: 86.3% from 162 flights
- April 2024: 89.9% from 150 flights
- May 2024: 80.7% from 150 flights
- June 2024: 68.6% from 137 flights
- July 2024: 66.9% from 136 flights
- August 2024: 80.6% from 129 flights
- September 2024: 91.0% from 122 flights
- October 2024: 94.5% from 128 flights
- November 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (115)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (80)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (77)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (108)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (114)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (118)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (117)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (95)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (89)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (82)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (71)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (61)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (74)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (38)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (87)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (115)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (99)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (102)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (115)
- July 2026: 80.0% from 120 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 79.2% against 83.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 4.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,308 MSP → MCI 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