Airport month record
ORDFEB
Chicago O'Hare International in February 2026
- Departures
- 25,538
- Month
- February 2026
- National, same month
- 80.2%
- Carriers
- 12
Historical statistics for February 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s February. For today’s conditions at ORD, see live FAA status.
ORD in February sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 7 points worse than the national rate of 80.2%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 25,538 flights, of which Delta Air Lines flew 529 at 80.7% on time.
Delta Air Lines is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 80.7% on time across 529 flights.
Key figures
On time
73.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 25,178 completed departures
Avg delay
67 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.11%
Nationally in February: 2.25%
Whole year
71.0%
ORD across all twelve months
These figures cover 25,538 departures from Chicago O'Hare International in February 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
February next to ORD's other months
Against ORD's own year, February ran 3 points better than the twelve-month rate of 71.0%, which makes it number five of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for ORD in February, at 1.11% against 2.68% across the year. Either side of it, January ran 67.4% on time and March 65.9%, so a trip moved by a few weeks would have landed in a worse stretch.
| 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 (this page) | 25,538 | 73.7% | 67 min | 1.11% | C |
| March 2026 | 31,373 | 65.9% | 85 min | 5.71% | C− |
| April 2026 | 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 February
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 19 points, against 22 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,467 flights83.7%
- 8am–11am5,882 flights75.6%
- 11am–2pm4,155 flights77.3%
- 2pm–5pm4,895 flights74.4%
- 5pm–8pm4,695 flights65.2%
- 8pm–5am3,444 flights69.9%
Scale runs 55% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 83.7% of the time, against 65.2% for the evening window. That is 19 points of difference for no extra money, and it comes from the same aircraft having had no earlier flight to fall behind on. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 5,882 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 84.1% on time and Monday the weakest at 65.1%. 19 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at ORD in February
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Delta Air Lines arrives on time 80.7% of the time; Spirit Airlines manages 59.2%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 410 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 6,804 | 80.6% | 50 min | 0.82% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 5,051 | 62.0% | 88 min | 0.91% | D+ |
| Envoy Air | 4,848 | 76.2% | 54 min | 0.45% | B+ |
| American Airlines | 4,145 | 71.5% | 66 min | 1.30% | C |
| Republic Airways | 2,661 | 78.3% | 53 min | 2.22% | B |
| Delta Air Lines | 529 | 80.7% | 48 min | 1.89% | B |
| Spirit Airlines | 410 | 59.2% | 85 min | 5.37% | D− |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 328 | 59.9% | 125 min | 2.44% | D |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 274 | 79.4% | 95 min | 0.73% | B+ |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 254 | 79.8% | 55 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 172 | 82.6% | 41 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 62 | 70.2% | 61 min | 8.06% | C− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 5.4% 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 February
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD to LGA · New York | 884 | 80.1% | 57 min | 7.01% | B− |
| ORD to MCO · Orlando | 551 | 79.5% | 59 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ORD to DCA · Washington | 529 | 70.5% | 65 min | 1.13% | C |
| ORD to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 508 | 81.1% | 65 min | 0.20% | B+ |
| ORD to BOS · Boston | 503 | 71.2% | 72 min | 6.76% | C− |
| ORD to LAX · Los Angeles | 451 | 78.7% | 52 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ORD to PHX · Phoenix | 446 | 80.9% | 54 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ORD to ATL · Atlanta | 445 | 82.7% | 54 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ORD to DTW · Detroit | 443 | 71.5% | 74 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| ORD to MSP · Minneapolis | 442 | 71.0% | 63 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| ORD to EWR · Newark | 440 | 74.3% | 59 min | 7.27% | C− |
| ORD to IAH · Houston | 433 | 86.1% | 57 min | 0.23% | A+ |
| ORD to DEN · Denver | 432 | 79.4% | 73 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ORD to MIA · Miami | 411 | 78.4% | 50 min | 0.97% | B+ |
| ORD to MKE · Milwaukee | 410 | 60.0% | 87 min | 0.73% | D+ |
| ORD to IND · Indianapolis | 398 | 72.8% | 64 min | 0.25% | C+ |
| ORD to LAS · Las Vegas | 392 | 82.6% | 55 min | 0.26% | B+ |
| ORD to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 356 | 73.0% | 59 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| ORD to FLL · Fort Lauderdalethin sample | 355 | 75.8% | 65 min | 2.25% | B |
| ORD to CLE · Clevelandthin sample | 346 | 74.6% | 42 min | 0.29% | C+ |
| ORD to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample | 343 | 80.7% | 65 min | 1.46% | B |
| ORD to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 341 | 80.5% | 74 min | 3.81% | B− |
| ORD to MCI · Kansas Citythin sample | 334 | 74.1% | 72 min | 0.60% | C+ |
| ORD to CMH · Columbusthin sample | 330 | 76.8% | 58 min | 0.30% | B+ |
| ORD to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 329 | 72.3% | 67 min | 0.00% | C+ |
Delay causes
What held ORD up in February
Carriers report a reason for every delay minute they cause, in five DOT categories. The split below is by minutes, not by number of flights, so a handful of very long weather delays weighs as much as many short ones. It covers 444,000 reported delay minutes.
- 35%Carrier
- 32%Late-arriving aircraft
- 22%National Airspace System
- 11%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
Extreme weather accounts for 11% 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 comparison with the other months below is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 1.9 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 444,208 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.11% against a national 2.25%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.30%.
8.7% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.5%. That is the figure that decides a connection, and it says a 60 to 75 minute layover is reasonable here while anything under 45 minutes is a bet. Most delays on this route last about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
What to do with this
Flying from ORD in February
For a February trip through ORD: expect 73.7% on time and 1.11% cancelled, going by February 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 March65.9%
- ORD in April69.7%
- 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.