Flights Chicago → Cleveland
MDW → CLE
Route overview
The flight route from Chicago to Cleveland has a 77% on-time performance rate, with an average delay of 8.5 minutes when flights are not on time. The destination airport in Cleveland, which opened in 1925, serves over 8.6 million passengers annually.
Your rights on this US flight (DOT)
US flights have no statutory cash compensation for delays. Under the US DOT rules, if your flight is cancelled or significantly changed and you decline rebooking, you're owed an automatic refund of the unused ticket. The tarmac-delay limit is 3 hours (domestic) / 4 hours (international). Amenities for controllable delays depend on each airline's contract of carriage.
US flight refund rules & checker →General information, not legal advice.
The Chicago (MDW) → Cleveland (CLE) route is operated by Southwest Airlines. Across 342 flights monitored in recent months, 77% arrived on time (within 15 min of schedule), with an average delay of 9 minutes. The cancellation rate is 3.80%. FlightGuard's average computed risk is 15.8/100 (medium), updated in real time from weather, ATC delays, strikes, NOTAMs, fuel and flight history. At Cleveland the average ATFM delay is 2.0 minutes (main cause: atfm). Departing from Chicago the average ATFM delay is 2.0 minutes.
Heading to Cleveland: what to expect in this direction
Flying from Chicago (MDW) to Cleveland (CLE) heads east for about 492 km, a flight time of roughly 1h 2m.
Departures from Chicago on this leg cluster in the morning window: about 35% of MDW-CLE flights take off then.
Air-traffic congestion: departing Chicago the average ATFM delay is 2.0 min (atfm); arriving into Cleveland it is 2.0 min (atfm).
Across 342 tracked MDW-CLE flights, 77% left on time with an average delay of 9 min and a 3.8% cancellation rate.
Route facts
Flights on this route
Check the risk of a specific flight.
Flexible on this trip? Compare flights
Airline punctuality on this route
| Airline | On-time | Average delay | Cancellations |
|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines (WN) | 73% | 6 min | 3.1% |
Airlines operating MDW-CLE
Airports
Frequently asked questions about MDW-CLE
On the Chicago (MDW) -> Cleveland (CLE) route, on-time performance is 77% with an average delay of 9 minutes, based on 342 tracked flights.
The cancellation rate on Chicago-Cleveland is 3.80% across 342 monitored flights.
The route is operated by 1 airline: Southwest Airlines.
Enter your flight number on FlightGuard for a real-time analysis based on 9 factors: weather at Cleveland, ATC delays, strikes, NOTAMs, fuel, airline punctuality and recent trends.
US flights have no statutory cash compensation for delays. Under US DOT rules, if the airline cancels or significantly changes your flight and you decline rebooking, you're owed an automatic refund of the unused ticket. The tarmac-delay limit is 3 hours (domestic) / 4 hours (international). Meals or hotels for controllable delays depend on each airline's contract of carriage.
