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Thanksgiving & Christmas Flight Delays at MKE: General Mitchell International Airport

Over the last four Thanksgiving travel weeks (2022–2025, Tuesday before through Sunday after), 23.8% of flights that left General Mitchell International Airport (Milwaukee, WI) arrived at least 15 minutes late and 2.2% were cancelled. In the rest of November the same airport had 14.5% late and 1.3% cancelled, so Thanksgiving week had 9.3 points more late arrivals. The best day was Thanksgiving Day (7.9% late); the worst was Sun after (44.5% late).

23.8%late arrivals, Thanksgiving week

2.2%cancelled, Thanksgiving week

26.7%late arrivals, Dec 20–31

5.1%cancelled, Dec 20–31

Which day of Thanksgiving week is best at MKE?

Day	Flights (4 yrs)	Late (15+ min)	Cancelled	Avg dep. delay (min)
Tue before	316	15.6%	0.0%	11.9
Wed before	317	23.7%	0.0%	7.9
Thanksgiving Day	177	7.9%	0.0%	6.6
Fri after	263	12.3%	0.4%	9.3
Sat after	306	30.9%	7.5%	18.8
Sun after	324	44.5%	4.3%	39.4

Pooled over 2022–2025. Thanksgiving 2026 is Thursday, Nov 26, so the window is Tue Nov 24 – Sun Nov 29. Individual days have fewer flights, so small differences are noise.

Year by year at MKE

Year	Thanksgiving week late	Thanksgiving week cancelled	Rest of Nov. late	Dec 20–31 late	Dec 20–31 cancelled
2022	14.7%	0.3%	19.4%	39.6%	18.3%
2023	21.4%	0.0%	10.6%	18.5%	0.2%
2024	17.0%	0.0%	13.0%	24.4%	0.5%
2025	42.5%	8.4%	15.8%	27.7%	2.6%

Single years can be dominated by one storm or airline meltdown; look at the range, not just the average. Dec 20–31, 2022 includes the late-December 2022 winter storm and airline disruptions nationwide.

Christmas week (Dec 20–31) at MKE

Across 2022–2025, 26.7% of flights from MKE arrived 15+ minutes late and 5.1% were cancelled during Dec 20–31, compared with 20.0% late and 0.6% cancelled from Dec 1–19 (+6.7 pts late arrivals).

Airlines at MKE, Thanksgiving week

Airline (flights it operated)	Flights (4 yrs)	Late	Cancelled	Dec 20–31 late
Southwest	616	20.9%	1.3%	26.0%
SkyWest *	350	30.5%	5.1%	27.8%
Delta Air Lines	228	19.0%	0.0%	22.3%

* Regional airline that mostly flies under another airline’s brand (for example American Eagle, Delta Connection, United Express), so the ticket you bought may not match the operator. Airlines with fewer than 200 flights in the window are omitted.

Why flights from MKE were late (Thanksgiving week)

Cause category (BTS)	Share of delay minutes
Airline (crew, maintenance, cleaning…)	42.7%
Extreme weather	4.2%
National Aviation System (air traffic, volume)	25.8%
Security	0.0%
Late-arriving aircraft	27.3%

Share of reported delay minutes on flights that arrived 15+ minutes late. “Extreme weather” is only a narrow category; many weather-related delays are counted under National Aviation System or late-arriving aircraft. Categories are assigned by airlines to BTS rules.

Source: BTS Airline On-Time Performance data, flights departing MKE operated by airlines that report to BTS. “Late” = arrived 15 or more minutes after schedule (the DOT definition), counted among flights that were not cancelled or diverted. Computed by Holiday Delay Odds; see methodology.