Carrier performance at one airport
YX→ORD
Republic Airways at Chicago O'Hare International
- Departures
- 31,835
- Period
- June 2025 to May 2026
- Routes
- 25
- Rank here
- #2 of 12
Republic Airways at Chicago carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.3% of scheduled flights never operate, against 1.8% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, close to three flights in four arrive on time, worth a B− overall. The punctuality figure counts only flights that actually departed, so it flatters an operation that cancels this often. That rests on 31,835 flights, of which JetBlue Airways flew 1,086 at 77.7% on time.
Measured against the airport rather than the country, Republic Airways runs 5 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
75.9%
30,740 completed departures
Avg delay
72 min
Across delayed flights only
Cancelled
3.28%
At ORD, this carrier only
Rank here
#2
Of 12 carriers clearing the floor at ORD
These figures cover 32,000 flights between June 2025 and May 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.4% 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 (this page) | 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 | 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 Republic Airways flies from ORD
Republic Airways 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 IND · Indianapolis | 2,716 | 76.0% | 78 min | 2.76% | B |
| ORD to SDF · Louisville | 1,709 | 75.1% | 78 min | 3.39% | B− |
| ORD to PIT · Pittsburgh | 1,548 | 81.1% | 78 min | 1.94% | B |
| ORD to CMH · Columbus | 1,472 | 75.8% | 80 min | 2.79% | B |
| ORD to CVG · Cincinnati | 1,407 | 77.9% | 68 min | 2.84% | B |
| ORD to LGA · New York | 1,298 | 71.0% | 69 min | 8.63% | C− |
| ORD to DCA · Washington | 991 | 67.3% | 73 min | 4.64% | C− |
| ORD to RDU · Raleigh | 952 | 71.8% | 68 min | 2.63% | C |
| ORD to BOS · Boston | 881 | 70.9% | 76 min | 5.45% | C− |
| ORD to RIC · Richmond | 781 | 77.5% | 63 min | 2.18% | B |
| ORD to SYR · Syracuse | 768 | 79.2% | 77 min | 2.99% | B |
| ORD to JFK · New York | 720 | 77.0% | 72 min | 2.08% | B |
| ORD to MSN · Madison | 693 | 79.4% | 80 min | 1.88% | B |
| ORD to ROC · Rochester | 677 | 79.8% | 68 min | 2.07% | B |
| ORD to GRR · Grand Rapids | 669 | 76.5% | 71 min | 2.24% | B |
| ORD to DTW · Detroit | 645 | 75.8% | 76 min | 3.41% | B− |
| ORD to ALB · Albany | 617 | 74.9% | 70 min | 3.89% | C− |
| ORD to BDL · Hartford | 615 | 79.9% | 79 min | 3.58% | B− |
| ORD to BNA · Nashville | 569 | 75.7% | 55 min | 1.41% | B |
| ORD to MCI · Kansas City | 566 | 75.9% | 66 min | 1.41% | B |
| ORD to DSM · Des Moines | 561 | 73.6% | 79 min | 4.46% | C− |
| ORD to CLE · Cleveland | 556 | 74.5% | 69 min | 5.40% | C− |
| ORD to MSP · Minneapolis | 526 | 72.5% | 76 min | 5.32% | C− |
| ORD to PWM · Portland | 525 | 74.9% | 65 min | 2.10% | C |
| ORD to CHS · Charleston | 472 | 82.1% | 58 min | 1.91% | B |
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 17 points, against 19 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,791 flights85.8%
- 8am–11am7,360 flights80.3%
- 11am–2pm4,701 flights78.9%
- 2pm–5pm5,723 flights75.1%
- 5pm–8pm5,413 flights70.1%
- 8pm–5am5,847 flights69.0%
Scale runs 60% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 85.8% of the time, against 69.0% for the overnight window. That is 17 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on.
Across the year
Seasonal pattern
December is the weak month at 62.8% on time, against 87.1% 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
- 46%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%National Airspace System
- 22%Carrier
- 10%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
46% 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 536,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 5 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 run at 3.28%, 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. 9.4% 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.
31,835 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 3.28% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; 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
Republic Airways at ORD
How often is Republic Airways 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 24.1% of the 31,835 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 Republic Airways 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 Republic Airways at ORD?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 85.8% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 69.0%, 17 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 Republic Airways at ORD?
December is the weakest month at 62.8% on time, compared with 87.1% in September. Across the year that is 24 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.