FlyerIntel

Route profile

SEA→MCI

Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Seattle to Kansas City, 1,489 miles.

Right now

Origin · SEANo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated

Seattle airport profile →

Destination · MCINo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated

Kansas City airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score
72/ 100Good

Better than 68% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 3,584 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals
78.5%
2,778 of 3,538
Cancellation rate
0.86%
31 cancelled
Median arrival delay
-4 min
Average 3.8 min
Severe delays
5.5%
60+ minutes late
Delay when late
52 min
Average, when 15+ min late
Flights analyzed
3,584
2 carriers

SEA → MCI arrives on time 78.5% of the time; the return trip, MCI → SEA, arrives on time 84.5% of the time, a 6.0-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

SEA → MCI spends 28.3 minutes on the ground on a 1,489-mile trip: 21.7 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SEA and 6.6 minutes from touchdown to gate at MCI.

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 99% of 2,692 comparable routes.

Delta Air Lines (79.1% on time) and Alaska Airlines (78.9%) 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 SEA to MCI differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.

SEA to MCI is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 5 PM: 77.8% arrive on time, 8.3 points ahead of the 69.5% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 8 points.

March is kinder to SEA to MCI than to routes of similar length: 88.6% on time against 78.4%, 10.2 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 10.7 points.

In September, SEA to MCI runs 6.3 points below routes of similar length, 76.2% on time to 82.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 6.2 points.

Delta Air Lines’ flights on SEA to MCI arrive on time 79.1% of the time, 3.8 points below the 82.9% it manages on its routes of similar length.

SEA to MCI against comparable routes

July 2023 – July 2026
Where SEA to MCI differs most from comparable routes, with the group each figure is compared with and the flights behind it
MeasureThis routeCompared withThemGapFlights behind it
Hour: 5 PM departures77.8%routes of similar length69.5%+8.3 pts490 here, 95,857 there
Month: March88.6%routes of similar length78.4%+10.2 pts236 here, 119,863 there
Month: September76.2%routes of similar length82.5%−6.3 pts341 here, 112,399 there
Airline: Delta Air Lines79.1%routes of similar length82.9%−3.8 pts1,098 here, 302,761 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 1,489 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

One arrival in ten is worse than

35 min late

against a median of 4 min early

Arrived an hour or more late5.5%
Typical delay when late52 min
Cancelled0.86%
Landed somewhere else0.42%

Percentiles over 3,584 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at MCI after arriving from SEA.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, SEA → MCI arrivals
Connection timeChance of missingReads as
30 min39%Likely to miss
45 min21%High risk
60 min12%Some risk
90 min5.4%Some risk
120 min2.7%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 0.86% of the time and diverts 0.42% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 3,538 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 35 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,584 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

SEA → MCI flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 86.3% of the time, against 70.0% for 12–3 PM departures, a gap of 16.3 percentage points.

By departure window

5–9 AM86.3%
9 AM–12 PM77.1%
12–3 PM70.0%
3–6 PM78.1%
6–9 PM76.8%
9 PM–5 AM—

By departure hour

  • 12 AM to 6 AM: too few flights to score
  • 7 AM: 85.7% on time from 279 flights
  • 8 AM: 86.7% on time from 579 flights
  • 9 AM: 79.2% on time from 248 flights
  • 10 AM to 12 PM: too few flights to score
  • 1 PM: 72.2% on time from 371 flights
  • 2 PM to 4 PM: too few flights to score
  • 5 PM: 77.8% on time from 503 flights
  • 6 PM: 76.8% on time from 1,479 flights
  • 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score

Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.

Why SEA → MCI runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

The airline48.0%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Late-arriving aircraft32.7%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

Air traffic control16.5%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather2.8%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security<0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SEA → MCI. 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.

Airlines on this route
CarrierFlightsOn timeCancelledMedian delaySevere
Alaska Airlines2,38478.9%0.67%-4 min4.0%
Delta Air Lines1,12279.1%1.34%-7 min8.4%

Alaska Airlines flew 68.0% of the 3,506 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.

Flights on this route
FlightScheduledOperationsOn time
AS564 Alaska Airlines6:35 PM79374.5%
DL2256 Delta Air Lines5:30 PM78378.3%

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon77.5%
Tue82.9%
Wed79.4%
Thu76.8%
Fri77.6%
Sat79.9%
Sun76.2%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.7 percentage points.

By month

  • Jan: 83.4%
  • Feb: 83.7%
  • Mar: 88.6%
  • Apr: 83.1%
  • May: 81.1%
  • Jun: 73.9%
  • Jul: 71.7%
  • Aug: 73.2%
  • Sep: 76.2%
  • Oct: 80.5%
  • Nov: 83.7%
  • Dec: 77.9%

July is historically the weakest month and March the strongest, a spread of 16.9 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

  • July 2023: 81.1% from 124 flights
  • August 2023: 74.0% from 124 flights
  • September 2023: too few flights to score (116)
  • October 2023: too few flights to score (93)
  • November 2023: too few flights to score (87)
  • December 2023: too few flights to score (86)
  • January 2024: too few flights to score (67)
  • February 2024: too few flights to score (67)
  • March 2024: too few flights to score (87)
  • April 2024: too few flights to score (90)
  • May 2024: too few flights to score (109)
  • June 2024: 74.8% from 128 flights
  • July 2024: 71.7% from 131 flights
  • August 2024: 76.2% from 127 flights
  • September 2024: too few flights to score (116)
  • October 2024: too few flights to score (87)
  • November 2024: too few flights to score (79)
  • December 2024: too few flights to score (85)
  • January 2025: too few flights to score (68)
  • February 2025: too few flights to score (63)
  • March 2025: too few flights to score (78)
  • April 2025: too few flights to score (85)
  • May 2025: too few flights to score (105)
  • June 2025: 65.6% from 124 flights
  • July 2025: 56.3% from 127 flights
  • August 2025: 69.2% from 121 flights
  • September 2025: too few flights to score (111)
  • October 2025: too few flights to score (88)
  • November 2025: too few flights to score (79)
  • December 2025: too few flights to score (85)
  • January 2026: too few flights to score (67)
  • February 2026: too few flights to score (56)
  • March 2026: too few flights to score (75)
  • April 2026: too few flights to score (90)
  • May 2026: too few flights to score (109)
  • June 2026: 81.3% from 123 flights
  • July 2026: 78.0% from 127 flights

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 80.2% against 76.9% in the 12 months before — improving by 3.3 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,584 SEA → 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

SEA airportMCI airportReturn direction MCI → SEA