Carrier performance at one airport
AA→ORD
American Airlines at Chicago O'Hare International
- Departures
- 60,749
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #9 of 12
American Airlines at Chicago draws a C. About one flight in three arrive at least 15 minutes late, and the typical late arrival is a little over an hour behind schedule. Build slack into anything you connect to. That rests on 60,749 flights, of which JetBlue Airways flew 1,105 at 77.8% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, American Airlines runs 4 points behind the 70.9% weighted average across all carriers at ORD. That is the comparison worth making: every operator here works the same runways, the same airspace and the same weather.
Key figures
On time
66.8%
58,928 completed departures
Avg delay
82 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.66%
At ORD, this carrier only
Rank here
#9
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at ORD
These figures cover 61,000 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 14.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Against the competition
Every carrier at ORD, ranked
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. JetBlue Airways arrives on time 77.8% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 59.9%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 3,385 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airways | 1,105 | 77.8% | 91 min | 3.53% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 32,164 | 76.2% | 73 min | 3.56% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 57,088 | 76.1% | 62 min | 2.82% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 10,543 | 73.3% | 91 min | 2.68% | C |
| United Airlines | 99,843 | 73.1% | 71 min | 1.23% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 3,980 | 70.1% | 68 min | 1.31% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 3,253 | 69.0% | 62 min | 1.75% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 4,157 | 67.4% | 105 min | 3.44% | C− |
| American Airlines (this page) | 60,749 | 66.8% | 82 min | 2.66% | C |
| SkyWest Airlines | 76,556 | 65.9% | 88 min | 3.84% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 4,581 | 65.9% | 83 min | 4.91% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 3,385 | 59.9% | 131 min | 6.79% | D− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.8% of what it schedules here, the highest in the table. A cancelled flight never appears in an on-time rate, so read that column alongside the punctuality one rather than after it.
Route by route
Where American Airlines flies from ORD
American Airlines operates 25 routes out of ORD with enough volume to report. Route records inside one carrier at one airport still spread widely, because a short shuttle and a transcontinental have very different exposure to a late inbound.
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 4,233 | 68.3% | 94 min | 3.87% | C− |
| ORD to LAX · Los Angeles | 3,052 | 68.6% | 75 min | 2.29% | C |
| ORD to MIA · Miami | 3,015 | 75.6% | 72 min | 1.92% | B |
| ORD to CLT · Charlotte | 2,999 | 74.6% | 85 min | 2.43% | C |
| ORD to PHX · Phoenix | 2,993 | 71.4% | 84 min | 2.34% | C |
| ORD to LGA · New York | 2,948 | 64.7% | 80 min | 4.31% | D− |
| ORD to PHL · Philadelphia | 2,926 | 71.1% | 100 min | 3.76% | C− |
| ORD to DCA · Washington | 2,299 | 66.3% | 95 min | 4.18% | C− |
| ORD to MCO · Orlando | 2,140 | 64.5% | 79 min | 2.29% | D |
| ORD to BOS · Boston | 2,126 | 59.9% | 75 min | 2.82% | D |
| ORD to LAS · Las Vegas | 1,852 | 66.8% | 71 min | 2.21% | C |
| ORD to SFO · San Francisco | 1,764 | 63.2% | 73 min | 1.76% | D |
| ORD to DEN · Denver | 1,471 | 66.5% | 76 min | 1.77% | C |
| ORD to SAN · San Diego | 1,385 | 66.3% | 65 min | 1.73% | C |
| ORD to SEA · Seattle | 1,336 | 63.5% | 70 min | 2.02% | D |
| ORD to AUS · Austin | 1,190 | 67.0% | 82 min | 2.86% | C |
| ORD to SNA · Santa Ana | 1,172 | 75.4% | 62 min | 1.79% | B |
| ORD to TPA · Tampa | 1,141 | 68.0% | 70 min | 1.93% | C |
| ORD to RSW · Fort Myers | 1,116 | 72.4% | 70 min | 1.88% | C |
| ORD to SLC · Salt Lake City | 969 | 64.2% | 69 min | 1.96% | D |
| ORD to PDX · Portland | 861 | 62.6% | 71 min | 1.39% | D |
| ORD to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 846 | 71.7% | 82 min | 1.54% | C |
| ORD to IAH · Houston | 798 | 60.6% | 84 min | 3.01% | D− |
| ORD to PBI · West Palm Beach | 796 | 66.0% | 85 min | 2.51% | C |
| ORD to EWR · Newark | 737 | 55.6% | 83 min | 3.80% | D− |
Departure window
Best time of day for this operation
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 30 points, against 18 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am8,433 flights84.0%
- 8am–11am13,403 flights72.7%
- 11am–2pm9,987 flights67.5%
- 2pm–5pm8,220 flights62.2%
- 5pm–8pm11,954 flights59.7%
- 8pm–5am8,752 flights54.1%
Scale runs 45% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 54.1% on time, against 84.0% for the 5am–8am slot. By evening the aircraft flying these rotations have absorbed a full day of small delays and there is no slack left to recover in. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 13,403 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
July is the worst month at 60.2% on time, 15 points below November, the best at 74.8%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. May was the busiest month here, with 6,084 flights.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 50%Late-arriving aircraft
- 29%Carrier
- 17%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
50% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 1.60 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 1,599,649 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 2.66%, against 1.81% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 cancelled outright. A cancelled flight is invisible in every on-time figure on this page, so the punctuality numbers above describe only the flights that actually operated.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 14.1% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% nationally. A 45-minute layover does not survive that, and no amount of walking quickly changes it. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
60,749 flights sit behind these numbers, which is a large enough sample that the headline rate is not moving on noise. Where a sub-group falls below 30 flights the site shows a dash instead of a percentage.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. November runs 74.8% on time and July 60.2%, a swing of 15 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else. 58,928 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
American Airlines at ORD
How often is American Airlines at ORD delayed?
About one flight in three arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 33.2% of the 60,749 flights in this analysis, against 22.4% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on American Airlines at ORD?
JetBlue Airways leads at 77.8% on time across 1,105 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 59.9%, a gap of 18 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on American Airlines at ORD?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 84.0% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 54.1%, 30 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are July delays on American Airlines at ORD?
July is the weakest month at 60.2% on time, compared with 74.8% in November. Across the year that is 15 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) all carriers
- ORD to DFW route record68.3%
- ORD to LAX route record68.6%
- ORD to MIA route record75.6%
- ORD to CLT route record74.6%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- What a cancellation rate actually tells you (and what it hides)
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.