Carrier performance at one airport
OO→ORD
SkyWest Airlines at Chicago O'Hare International
- Departures
- 75,600
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #11 of 12
SkyWest Airlines at Chicago carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about two flights in three arrive on time, worth a C− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 75,600 flights, of which JetBlue Airways flew 1,086 at 77.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, SkyWest Airlines runs 5 points behind 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
65.4%
72,583 completed departures
Avg delay
88 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
3.54%
At ORD, this carrier only
Rank here
#11
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at ORD
These figures cover 76,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 15.4% 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 | 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 (this page) | 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 SkyWest Airlines flies from ORD
SkyWest 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 MKE · Milwaukee | 4,898 | 63.3% | 91 min | 4.41% | D− |
| ORD to SBN · South Bend | 2,662 | 62.0% | 87 min | 3.91% | D− |
| ORD to DTW · Detroit | 2,382 | 63.9% | 92 min | 3.11% | D− |
| ORD to OKC · Oklahoma City | 2,321 | 66.5% | 86 min | 2.71% | C |
| ORD to FWA · Fort Wayne | 2,219 | 61.7% | 83 min | 3.88% | D− |
| ORD to FNT · Flint | 2,023 | 64.5% | 100 min | 3.61% | D− |
| ORD to MLI · Moline | 1,563 | 67.4% | 82 min | 4.93% | C− |
| ORD to LNK · Lincoln | 1,528 | 63.1% | 93 min | 2.75% | D |
| ORD to CAK · Akron | 1,473 | 64.6% | 93 min | 4.55% | D− |
| ORD to LEX · Lexington | 1,463 | 68.4% | 91 min | 2.53% | C |
| ORD to ATW · Appleton | 1,448 | 65.1% | 89 min | 4.83% | C− |
| ORD to ICT · Wichita | 1,446 | 65.9% | 79 min | 2.49% | C |
| ORD to BNA · Nashville | 1,444 | 61.4% | 88 min | 3.39% | D− |
| ORD to MSN · Madison | 1,282 | 65.1% | 95 min | 5.15% | C− |
| ORD to GRB · Green Bay | 1,280 | 61.0% | 82 min | 4.45% | D− |
| ORD to PIA · Peoria | 1,276 | 65.2% | 74 min | 4.39% | C− |
| ORD to DSM · Des Moines | 1,172 | 67.4% | 80 min | 4.61% | C− |
| ORD to CHO · Charlottesville | 1,170 | 65.0% | 90 min | 4.10% | C− |
| ORD to HSV · Huntsville | 1,162 | 65.3% | 105 min | 3.36% | C− |
| ORD to DLH · Duluth | 1,143 | 63.6% | 78 min | 3.24% | D− |
| ORD to TVC · Traverse City | 1,111 | 61.1% | 107 min | 4.32% | D− |
| ORD to TUL · Tulsa | 1,044 | 74.6% | 74 min | 1.44% | C |
| ORD to ASE · Aspen | 1,042 | 60.9% | 101 min | 2.59% | D |
| ORD to FAR · Fargo | 1,033 | 62.9% | 86 min | 2.81% | D |
| ORD to FSD · Sioux Falls | 998 | 61.3% | 104 min | 3.41% | 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 23 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am5,795 flights78.2%
- 8am–11am15,125 flights71.4%
- 11am–2pm13,572 flights70.0%
- 2pm–5pm17,661 flights61.6%
- 5pm–8pm12,132 flights55.7%
- 8pm–5am11,315 flights61.3%
Scale runs 45% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 55.7% on time, against 78.2% 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 50.6% on time, against 77.4% 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
- 40%Carrier
- 27%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%National Airspace System
- 16%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 16% of delay minutes, well above the single-digit share typical across the system. Weather delays are lumpy: they arrive as whole bad days rather than as a steady drag, so the monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 2.5 times the usual weather exposure.
Cancellations run at 3.54%, against 1.80% nationally. That is about one flight in 30 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. 15.4% 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.
75,600 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 delay figures matter less here than the 3.54% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you an hour and a half; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic.
Common questions
SkyWest Airlines at ORD
How often is SkyWest 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 34.6% of the 75,600 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 SkyWest Airlines 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 SkyWest Airlines at ORD?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 78.2% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 55.7%, 23 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 SkyWest Airlines at ORD?
December is the weakest month at 50.6% on time, compared with 77.4% 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
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, June 2025 to May 2026. Updated monthly. How this data is collected.