Airport month record
ORDAPR
Chicago O'Hare International in April 2026
- Departures
- 33,206
- Month
- April 2026
- National, same month
- 79.8%
- Carriers
- 12
Historical statistics for April 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s April. For today’s conditions at ORD, see live FAA status.
ORD in April carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.5% of scheduled flights never operate, against 0.9% nationally. Of the ones that do fly, about seven flights in ten 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 33,206 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 3,268 at 76.8% on time.
Republic Airways is the most reliable of the ten carriers covered here at 76.8% on time across 3,268 flights.
Key figures
On time
69.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 31,959 completed departures
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.54%
Nationally in April: 0.90%
Whole year
71.0%
ORD across all twelve months
These figures cover 33,206 departures from Chicago O'Hare International in April 2026. On time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the DOT's threshold, and the national comparison uses every US departure in the same month rather than the whole year.
Against the year
April next to ORD's other months
Against ORD's own year, April ran about a point worse than the twelve-month rate of 71.0%, which makes it number eight of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, March ran 65.9% on time and May 76.1%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 2025 | 30,503 | 63.9% | 82 min | 2.60% | D |
| August 2025 | 30,090 | 73.9% | 80 min | 2.48% | C |
| September 2025 | 28,867 | 79.2% | 68 min | 0.42% | B+ |
| October 2025 | 31,096 | 74.7% | 64 min | 0.23% | C+ |
| November 2025 | 28,703 | 73.3% | 82 min | 5.59% | C− |
| December 2025 | 27,790 | 61.0% | 91 min | 2.53% | D |
| January 2026 | 25,131 | 67.4% | 79 min | 3.74% | C− |
| February 2026 | 25,538 | 73.7% | 67 min | 1.11% | C |
| March 2026 | 31,373 | 65.9% | 85 min | 5.71% | C− |
| April 2026 (this page) | 33,206 | 69.7% | 75 min | 3.54% | C− |
| May 2026 | 33,733 | 76.1% | 73 min | 1.01% | B |
| June 2026 | 31,374 | 71.3% | 80 min | 3.19% | C− |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave ORD in April
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 23 points, against 28 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am3,535 flights84.5%
- 8am–11am7,050 flights75.6%
- 11am–2pm5,093 flights71.4%
- 2pm–5pm6,488 flights65.2%
- 5pm–8pm5,236 flights61.6%
- 8pm–5am5,804 flights63.7%
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 61.6% on time, against 84.5% 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 7,050 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Sunday is the strongest day at 77.5% on time and Thursday the weakest at 62.2%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at ORD in April
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 76.8% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 48.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 423 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 8,581 | 72.5% | 69 min | 1.54% | C |
| SkyWest Airlines | 7,121 | 63.1% | 80 min | 6.11% | D− |
| Envoy Air | 5,829 | 75.9% | 70 min | 3.69% | B− |
| American Airlines | 5,730 | 63.9% | 75 min | 3.18% | D− |
| Republic Airways | 3,268 | 76.8% | 67 min | 3.79% | B− |
| Delta Air Lines | 765 | 76.5% | 91 min | 2.35% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 423 | 48.4% | 84 min | 5.67% | F− |
| Southwest Airlines | 400 | 65.3% | 61 min | 1.75% | C |
| Frontier Airlines | 395 | 68.2% | 92 min | 3.54% | C− |
| PSA Airlines | 393 | 66.4% | 121 min | 5.85% | C− |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 232 | 75.7% | 72 min | 0.86% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 69 | 88.4% | 77 min | 0.00% | A+ |
SkyWest Airlines cancels 6.1% 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
Busiest routes out of ORD in April
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD to LGA · New York | 962 | 65.2% | 69 min | 3.01% | C− |
| ORD to BOS · Boston | 641 | 69.9% | 66 min | 2.18% | C |
| ORD to IND · Indianapolis | 590 | 72.7% | 70 min | 6.27% | C− |
| ORD to MSP · Minneapolis | 583 | 73.8% | 75 min | 2.57% | C |
| ORD to MCO · Orlando | 583 | 67.1% | 63 min | 1.72% | C |
| ORD to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 579 | 65.5% | 86 min | 2.76% | C |
| ORD to DTW · Detroit | 567 | 75.5% | 83 min | 3.35% | B− |
| ORD to DCA · Washington | 567 | 71.3% | 72 min | 3.17% | C− |
| ORD to ATL · Atlanta | 554 | 73.6% | 89 min | 2.89% | C |
| ORD to LAX · Los Angeles | 551 | 65.3% | 70 min | 1.45% | C |
| ORD to PHX · Phoenix | 537 | 66.9% | 75 min | 2.42% | C |
| ORD to EWR · Newark | 535 | 78.4% | 70 min | 1.50% | B |
| ORD to IAH · Houston | 526 | 70.5% | 72 min | 2.66% | C |
| ORD to SFO · San Francisco | 523 | 65.9% | 66 min | 1.34% | C |
| ORD to MKE · Milwaukee | 516 | 62.2% | 83 min | 10.08% | D− |
| ORD to BNA · Nashville | 512 | 74.3% | 73 min | 3.32% | C− |
| ORD to LAS · Las Vegas | 508 | 64.5% | 74 min | 1.57% | D |
| ORD to DEN · Denver | 494 | 75.4% | 58 min | 2.02% | B |
| ORD to CLE · Cleveland | 478 | 71.6% | 76 min | 2.93% | C |
| ORD to SEA · Seattle | 465 | 75.8% | 59 min | 1.29% | B |
| ORD to CMH · Columbus | 463 | 72.8% | 76 min | 3.02% | C− |
| ORD to GRR · Grand Rapids | 443 | 70.1% | 81 min | 5.87% | C− |
| ORD to PHL · Philadelphia | 435 | 72.0% | 79 min | 2.99% | C |
| ORD to MSN · Madison | 427 | 72.5% | 93 min | 5.39% | C− |
| ORD to MCI · Kansas City | 406 | 67.1% | 70 min | 3.20% | C− |
Delay causes
What held ORD up in April
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 45% of the 721,000 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 45%Late-arriving aircraft
- 25%Carrier
- 21%National Airspace System
- 9%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
45% 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 721,000 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. The split is drawn from 721,247 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.54%, against 0.90% 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. 11.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 6.4% 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.
What to do with this
Flying from ORD in April
For a April trip through ORD: expect 69.7% on time and 3.54% cancelled, going by April 2026. The 5am–8am window was the strongest part of the day.
Related
Where to go next
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD), the whole year
- ORD in July63.9%
- ORD in August73.9%
- ORD in September79.2%
- ORD in October74.7%
- ORD in November73.3%
- ORD in December61.0%
- ORD in January67.4%
- ORD in February73.7%
- ORD in March65.9%
- ORD in May76.1%
- ORD in June71.3%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, July 2025 to June 2026. Last updated 15 September 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.