Carrier performance at one airport
UA→ORD
United Airlines at Chicago O'Hare International
- Departures
- 98,675
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #4 of 12
United Airlines at Chicago sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.4%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 98,675 flights, of which JetBlue Airways flew 1,086 at 77.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, United Airlines 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
73.2%
97,325 completed departures
Avg delay
70 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
1.14%
At ORD, this carrier only
Rank here
#4
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at ORD
These figures cover 99,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.0% 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 (this page) | 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 | 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 United Airlines flies from ORD
United 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 LGA · New York | 4,658 | 67.6% | 81 min | 3.16% | C− |
| ORD to EWR · Newark | 4,335 | 70.9% | 88 min | 2.19% | C |
| ORD to IAH · Houston | 3,973 | 78.3% | 67 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| ORD to SFO · San Francisco | 3,772 | 72.1% | 72 min | 1.03% | C |
| ORD to DEN · Denver | 3,701 | 77.6% | 71 min | 0.92% | B+ |
| ORD to LAX · Los Angeles | 3,396 | 77.5% | 68 min | 0.62% | B+ |
| ORD to DCA · Washington | 3,386 | 70.6% | 73 min | 1.68% | C |
| ORD to BOS · Boston | 2,633 | 68.3% | 78 min | 1.75% | C |
| ORD to MCO · Orlando | 2,426 | 79.2% | 70 min | 0.66% | B+ |
| ORD to MSP · Minneapolis | 2,401 | 69.3% | 69 min | 0.83% | C+ |
| ORD to LAS · Las Vegas | 2,330 | 79.8% | 62 min | 0.39% | B+ |
| ORD to CLE · Cleveland | 2,186 | 72.2% | 69 min | 1.19% | C |
| ORD to IAD · Washington | 2,021 | 72.4% | 73 min | 0.64% | C+ |
| ORD to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 1,985 | 73.4% | 71 min | 1.21% | C |
| ORD to PHX · Phoenix | 1,944 | 79.9% | 63 min | 0.41% | B+ |
| ORD to PHL · Philadelphia | 1,718 | 71.9% | 76 min | 1.22% | C |
| ORD to SAN · San Diego | 1,675 | 77.6% | 63 min | 0.30% | B+ |
| ORD to RSW · Fort Myers | 1,615 | 81.4% | 66 min | 0.50% | B+ |
| ORD to ATL · Atlanta | 1,575 | 74.2% | 64 min | 1.02% | C |
| ORD to SEA · Seattle | 1,540 | 73.5% | 60 min | 0.65% | C+ |
| ORD to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 1,447 | 79.0% | 67 min | 0.76% | B+ |
| ORD to AUS · Austin | 1,434 | 78.4% | 67 min | 1.05% | B |
| ORD to TPA · Tampa | 1,401 | 79.3% | 69 min | 0.43% | B+ |
| ORD to PDX · Portland | 1,386 | 73.3% | 60 min | 0.43% | C+ |
| ORD to MCI · Kansas City | 1,374 | 71.0% | 70 min | 1.16% | 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 29 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am12,165 flights89.9%
- 8am–11am20,798 flights80.8%
- 11am–2pm15,992 flights77.5%
- 2pm–5pm19,874 flights69.9%
- 5pm–8pm16,932 flights60.8%
- 8pm–5am12,914 flights61.1%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 60.8% on time, against 89.9% 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
July is the worst month at 64.5% on time, 16 points below February, the best at 80.6%. 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.
Delay causes
What holds this operation up
- 43%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 25%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
43% 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 1.83 million reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 7 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 1.14% against a national 1.80%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.23%.
For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 10.0% 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.
98,675 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. February runs 80.6% on time and July 64.5%, a swing of 16 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of July before you think about anything else.
Common questions
United Airlines at ORD
How often is United Airlines at ORD delayed?
About 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 26.8% of the 98,675 flights in this analysis, against 22.6% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on United 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 United Airlines at ORD?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.9% on time. The 5pm–8pm window is the weakest at 60.8%, 29 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 United Airlines at ORD?
July is the weakest month at 64.5% on time, compared with 80.6% in February. Across the year that is 16 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
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) all carriers
- ORD to LGA route record67.6%
- ORD to EWR route record70.9%
- ORD to IAH route record78.3%
- ORD to SFO route record72.1%
- 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.