On-Time Report

Routes › Chicago (MDW) › MDW to BWI

Route · 12 months to July 2026

Chicago to Baltimore: on-time record

Chicago Midway International to Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall

76.5%arrived on time

BTS: A flight is counted as on time if it arrived less than 15 minutes after its scheduled time. Only carriers with at least 0.5 percent of domestic scheduled passenger revenue report. Data through July 2026; this is a monthly history, not live flight status.

In the 12 months to July 2026, reporting carriers scheduled 1,857 flights from Chicago (MDW) to Baltimore (BWI), a distance of 611 miles. 76.5% of them arrived within 15 minutes of schedule.

That is 0.5 points above the national on-time share of 76.0% for the same period and 2.6 points above the 73.9% recorded for all departures from MDW. Flights that did arrive were 6.3 min late on average, and 2.7% of scheduled flights were cancelled (national: 1.8%).

2 reporting carriers flew the route at least 60 times. Frontier Airlines had the highest on-time share at 81.7% of 71 flights; Southwest Airlines had the lowest at 76.3% of 1,786.

By scheduled departure hour (local time at MDW), flights leaving from 6 am to 7 am had the highest on-time share, 94.3%; those leaving from 7 pm to 8 pm had the lowest, 42.1%.

The on-time share is down 2.8 points on the previous 12 months (79.3%); cancellations moved from 1.1% to 2.7%.

Of the delay minutes that carriers assigned to a BTS cause category on this route, late-arriving aircraft 48%, air carrier 32% and national aviation system 15%.

76.5%arrived on timenational 76.0%
6.3 minaverage arrival delayearly arrivals count as negative; national 8.1 min
2.7%cancellednational 1.8%
155flights a month1,857 in 12 months · 611 miles
Every scheduled MDW to BWI flight by a reporting carrier, August 2025 to July 2026.

Airlines on the route compared

Reporting carrierFlightsShareOn timeAvg arrival delayCancelled
WN Southwest Airlines1,78696%76.3%6.6 min2.7%
F9 Frontier Airlines714%81.7%-1.0 min1.4%

Carriers with at least 24 flights in the 12 months to July 2026. The on-time pill is green when a carrier is at or above the route's overall share. Regional carriers operate flights sold under larger airlines' brands; BTS lists the carrier that operated the flight.

Compared with the airports and the nation

MeasureMDW to BWIAll departures from MDWAll arrivals at BWIAll reported flights
Arrived on time76.5%73.9%78.5%76.0%
Arrived 15+ minutes late20.3%24.2%19.5%21.9%
Cancelled2.7%1.5%1.7%1.8%
Diverted0.5%0.3%0.3%0.3%
Average arrival delay6.3 min8.1 min4.8 min8.1 min
Delay minutes per 100 flights1,3201,4831,2351,684
Scheduled flights1,85773,74494,4337,043,858

12 months to July 2026. Delay minutes count late arrivals only (an early arrival is zero), so the per-100-flights row is a normalised total rather than an average of early and late.

The return direction, BWI to MDW, recorded 73.8% on time across 1,838 flights in the same period.

Month by month

100%columns start at 40%
Share of scheduled MDW to BWI flights that arrived on time, Aug 2023 to Jul 2026. Green columns are at or above the national figure for that month (the dark tick), amber below it, red more than eight points below.

Year on year: on time 76.5% against 79.3% (−2.8 pts), cancelled 2.7% against 1.1%, flights 1,857 against 1,933.

By scheduled departure hour

On-time share:under 62%6270768288% and over
Share of flights that arrived on time, by the hour they were scheduled to leave MDW (local time), 12 months to July 2026. Faded cells have few flights. Hover or tap a cell for counts.

Delay causes

BTS cause categoryShare of delay minutesNationalMinutes
Air carrier32.1%33.3%7,114
Late-arriving aircraft48.4%39.7%10,722
National Aviation System14.7%20.7%3,264
Extreme weather4.5%6.1%991
Security0.2%0.1%44
22,135 delay minutes on 377 flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late and carried a cause report. Carriers assign the categories; see what each category means.

Seasonality

Calendar monthFlightsOn timeCancelledAvg arrival delayYears in sample
Jan40676.8%5.9%1.4 min3
Feb34982.8%1.4%-0.6 min3
Mar41479.7%1.7%5.5 min3
Apr45983.2%0.7%2.1 min3
May49573.7%0.0%9.2 min3
Jun53770.9%0.9%12.4 min3
Jul57663.4%3.0%23.1 min3
Aug54173.8%2.4%8.3 min3
Sep52381.5%0.6%3.8 min3
Oct55585.0%0.2%-0.1 min3
Nov46382.7%4.5%-2.1 min3
Dec44877.0%1.3%5.3 min3

Each calendar month summed across the 36 months on file, so most rows combine three years. The pill compares the month with the route's own 12-month share.

Other routes from Chicago (MDW)

RouteCitiesFlightsOn timeAvg arrival delayCancelled
MDW–ATLChicago to Atlanta3,52777.5%3.4 min2.1%
MDW–MCOChicago to Orlando2,75674.3%8.3 min1.5%
MDW–PHXChicago to Phoenix2,73874.2%7.6 min1.6%
MDW–LGAChicago to New York2,38565.3%14.1 min4.2%
MDW–MSPChicago to Minneapolis2,36875.5%7.6 min1.8%
MDW–LASChicago to Las Vegas2,27375.8%6.2 min0.8%
MDW–DENChicago to Denver2,27173.1%9.5 min1.3%
MDW–DALChicago to Dallas2,18575.5%5.5 min2.0%

All 87 routes and the airport record for MDW · airport record for BWI

Questions and answers

How often are flights from Chicago to Baltimore on time?

76.5% of the 1,857 flights scheduled from MDW to BWI in the 12 months to July 2026 arrived less than 15 minutes after their scheduled time. The national share for the same period was 76.0%. Cancelled and diverted flights count as not on time.

Which airline has the highest on-time share from MDW to BWI?

Among reporting carriers with at least 60 flights on the route, Frontier Airlines had the highest on-time share (81.7%), followed by Southwest Airlines (76.3%). Differences of a point or two on a few hundred flights are small.

What causes delays between Chicago and Baltimore?

For flights that arrived 15 or more minutes late, carriers attributed the delay minutes as follows: late-arriving aircraft 48%, air carrier 32%, national aviation system 15%, extreme weather 5%, security 0%. The categories are the carriers' own reports to BTS; weather that slows the wider system is usually recorded under the National Aviation System rather than extreme weather.

What time of day has the highest on-time share from MDW?

Flights scheduled to leave MDW from 6 am to 7 am arrived on time 94.3% of the time, the highest of any hour with enough flights to compare. The lowest was 7 pm to 8 pm at 42.1%. Delays tend to build through the day as late aircraft carry over to later flights.

Is it getting better?

The on-time share for the 12 months to July 2026 was 76.5%, down 2.8 points on the previous 12 months (79.3%). The monthly chart on this page shows each of the last 36 months. Across those months, October had the highest on-time share (85.0%) and July the lowest (63.4%).

Where does this data come from?

Every figure is computed from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance files, which list each scheduled domestic flight by the carriers required to report. This page covers August 2023 to July 2026. It shows totals and averages only; it is not a live flight-status service.

Provenance

Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Reporting Carrier On-Time Performance (1987 to present), monthly files August 2023 to July 2026, a US government work in the public domain. Figures are totals and averages over all scheduled flights by reporting carriers on the route; no individual flight or aircraft is identified. Times are local to the departure airport. The load factor and passenger counts from the BTS T-100 series are not included in this edition. See the methodology; report processing errors through corrections.