Route profile
MSP→SLC
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City, 991 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 98% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 4,940 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
MSP → SLC arrives on time 87.2% of the time; the return trip, SLC → MSP, arrives on time 86.6% of the time.
MSP → SLC spends 23.9 minutes on the ground on a 991-mile trip: 16.4 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at MSP and 7.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at SLC.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 100% of 4,467 comparable routes.
88.0% on time on the best day (Wednesday) against 86.4% on the worst (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 MSP to SLC differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
MSP to SLC is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 PM: 83.3% arrive on time, 15.9 points ahead of the 67.4% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 14.8 points.
MSP to SLC holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 86.4% on time to their 73.6%, a 12.8 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 11.6 points.
May is kinder to MSP to SLC than to routes of similar length: 89.4% on time against 74.3%, 15.1 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 14.2 points.
Delta Air Lines does better on MSP to SLC than on its routes of similar length: 87.2% on time here, 80.6% there, 6.6 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 5.7 points.
MSP to SLC against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 83.3% | routes of similar length | 67.4% | +15.9 pts | 1,113 here, 194,589 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 86.4% | routes of similar length | 73.6% | +12.8 pts | 711 here, 454,046 there |
| Month: May | 89.4% | routes of similar length | 74.3% | +15.1 pts | 442 here, 256,565 there |
| Airline: Delta Air Lines | 87.2% | routes of similar length | 80.6% | +6.6 pts | 4,921 here, 447,248 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 991 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
20 min late
against a median of 8 min early
Percentiles over 4,940 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at SLC after arriving from MSP.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 29% | High risk |
| 45 min | 12% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 6.9% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 3.1% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 1.5% | 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 0.30% of the time and diverts 0.08% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 4,921 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 20 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 4,940 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
MSP → SLC flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 93.2% of the time, against 80.8% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 12.4 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
- 7 AM: 91.3% on time from 521 flights
- 8 AM: 94.6% on time from 593 flights
- 9 AM to 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 90.1% on time from 561 flights
- 12 PM: 92.3% on time from 498 flights
- 1 PM: too few flights to score
- 2 PM: 86.2% on time from 1,109 flights
- 3 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 83.3% on time from 1,113 flights
- 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 74.7% on time from 437 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why MSP → SLC 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 → SLC. 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 | 4,940 | 87.2% | 0.30% | -8 min | 3.1% |
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
DL2628 (8:30 AM) arrived on time 92.3% of the time, 12.0 points more often than DL2607 (6:10 PM) at 80.3%.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 1.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 84.7%
- Feb: 88.3%
- Mar: 82.5%
- Apr: 94.2%
- May: 89.4%
- Jun: 79.7%
- Jul: 82.0%
- Aug: 88.0%
- Sep: 91.3%
- Oct: 92.3%
- Nov: 93.5%
- Dec: 83.7%
June is historically the weakest month and April the strongest, a spread of 14.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 81.4% from 145 flights
- August 2023: 91.1% from 136 flights
- September 2023: 89.2% from 121 flights
- October 2023: 90.6% from 127 flights
- November 2023: too few flights to score (118)
- December 2023: 96.8% from 125 flights
- January 2024: 87.0% from 124 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (117)
- March 2024: 88.3% from 137 flights
- April 2024: 94.2% from 137 flights
- May 2024: 92.2% from 141 flights
- June 2024: 71.4% from 147 flights
- July 2024: 79.0% from 149 flights
- August 2024: 83.9% from 155 flights
- September 2024: 96.0% from 126 flights
- October 2024: 94.4% from 124 flights
- November 2024: too few flights to score (119)
- December 2024: 84.4% from 123 flights
- January 2025: 88.8% from 125 flights
- February 2025: too few flights to score (113)
- March 2025: 84.0% from 145 flights
- April 2025: 93.2% from 147 flights
- May 2025: 90.0% from 150 flights
- June 2025: 84.0% from 144 flights
- July 2025: 76.9% from 147 flights
- August 2025: 89.6% from 134 flights
- September 2025: 88.3% from 120 flights
- October 2025: 91.9% from 124 flights
- November 2025: 89.1% from 120 flights
- December 2025: 70.1% from 128 flights
- January 2026: 78.2% from 124 flights
- February 2026: too few flights to score (113)
- March 2026: 75.5% from 146 flights
- April 2026: 95.2% from 146 flights
- May 2026: 86.1% from 151 flights
- June 2026: 83.9% from 143 flights
- July 2026: 90.5% from 149 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 85.4% against 87.6% in the 12 months before — declining by 2.2 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 4,940 MSP → SLC 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