Carrier performance at one airport
DL→ORD
Delta Air Lines at Chicago O'Hare International
- Departures
- 10,533
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 7
- Rank here
- #5 of 12
Delta Air Lines at Chicago sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.4%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 10,533 flights, of which JetBlue Airways flew 1,086 at 77.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Delta Air Lines runs 2 points ahead of the 70.7% 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
72.6%
10,238 completed departures
Avg delay
91 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
2.39%
At ORD, this carrier only
Rank here
#5
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at ORD
These figures cover 11,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.8% 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 77.7% of the time; PSA Airlines manages 59.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 3,619 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JetBlue Airways | 1,086 | 77.7% | 94 min | 3.22% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 31,835 | 75.9% | 72 min | 3.28% | B− |
| Envoy Air | 56,953 | 75.6% | 61 min | 2.53% | B |
| United Airlines | 98,675 | 73.2% | 70 min | 1.14% | C |
| Delta Air Lines (this page) | 10,533 | 72.6% | 91 min | 2.39% | C |
| Southwest Airlines | 4,362 | 69.6% | 67 min | 1.22% | C |
| Alaska Airlines | 3,210 | 68.9% | 62 min | 1.56% | C |
| American Airlines | 60,477 | 67.1% | 82 min | 2.56% | C |
| Spirit Airlines | 5,127 | 67.0% | 84 min | 4.45% | C− |
| Frontier Airlines | 4,194 | 66.3% | 104 min | 3.43% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 75,600 | 65.4% | 88 min | 3.54% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 3,619 | 59.2% | 131 min | 6.60% | D− |
PSA Airlines cancels 6.6% 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 Delta Air Lines flies from ORD
Delta Air Lines operates 7 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 ATL · Atlanta | 2,621 | 78.8% | 85 min | 2.29% | B |
| ORD to LGA · New York | 2,289 | 69.5% | 103 min | 4.33% | C− |
| ORD to MSP · Minneapolis | 1,426 | 68.8% | 94 min | 1.75% | C |
| ORD to DTW · Detroit | 1,313 | 77.5% | 86 min | 1.98% | B |
| ORD to SLC · Salt Lake City | 1,011 | 70.5% | 99 min | 0.69% | C+ |
| ORD to BOS · Boston | 961 | 68.6% | 85 min | 2.39% | C |
| ORD to SEA · Seattle | 898 | 67.7% | 67 min | 1.22% | C |
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 24 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,649 flights84.1%
- 8am–11am1,949 flights78.8%
- 11am–2pm1,414 flights75.3%
- 2pm–5pm1,561 flights65.7%
- 5pm–8pm2,442 flights60.3%
- 8pm–5am518 flights61.3%
Scale runs 50% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 60.3% on time, against 84.1% 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.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 54.5% on time, against 81.6% in September. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 39%Late-arriving aircraft
- 33%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
39% 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 254,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 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.
Cancellations sit at 2.39% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.41%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 11.8% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.2% 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.
The sample behind these figures is 10,533 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. September runs 81.6% on time and December 54.5%, a swing of 27 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of December before you think about anything else.
Common questions
Delta Air Lines at ORD
How often is Delta Air Lines at ORD delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrive at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 27.4% of the 10,533 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by an hour and a half on average.
Which airline is most reliable on Delta Air Lines at ORD?
JetBlue Airways leads at 77.7% on time across 1,086 flights. PSA Airlines is at the other end on 59.2%, a gap of 19 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 Delta Air Lines at ORD?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 84.1% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 60.3%, 24 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 December delays on Delta Air Lines at ORD?
December is the weakest month at 54.5% on time, compared with 81.6% in September. Across the year that is 27 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
- Delta Air Lines network-wide record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) all carriers
- ORD to ATL route record78.8%
- ORD to LGA route record69.5%
- ORD to MSP route record68.8%
- ORD to DTW route record77.5%
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.