Airport month record
ORDJAN
Chicago O'Hare International in January 2026
- Departures
- 25,131
- Month
- January 2026
- National, same month
- 79.2%
- Carriers
- 12
Historical statistics for January 2026, not live status or a forecast for this year’s January. For today’s conditions at ORD, see live FAA status.
ORD in January carries a cancellation problem, not just a delay problem: 3.7% of scheduled flights never operate, against 4.7% 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 25,131 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 3,102 at 73.4% on time.
Republic Airways is the most reliable of the seven carriers covered here at 73.4% on time across 3,102 flights.
Key figures
On time
67.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 24,127 completed departures
Avg delay
79 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.74%
Nationally in January: 4.71%
Whole year
71.0%
ORD across all twelve months
These figures cover 25,131 departures from Chicago O'Hare International in January 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
January next to ORD's other months
Against ORD's own year, January ran 4 points worse than the twelve-month rate of 71.0%, which makes it number nine of twelve months, best first. Either side of it, December ran 61.0% on time and February 73.7%, 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 (this page) | 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 | 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 January
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 23 points, against 15 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am2,195 flights81.3%
- 8am–11am5,867 flights69.8%
- 11am–2pm4,343 flights68.8%
- 2pm–5pm4,783 flights68.8%
- 5pm–8pm4,674 flights58.0%
- 8pm–5am3,269 flights62.9%
Scale runs 50% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 58.0% on time, against 81.3% 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 5,867 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 79.2% on time and Friday the weakest at 58.6%. 21 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at ORD in January
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 73.4% of the time; SkyWest Airlines manages 58.1%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 5,262 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 7,205 | 71.4% | 66 min | 1.93% | C |
| SkyWest Airlines | 5,262 | 58.1% | 99 min | 4.41% | D− |
| Envoy Air | 4,017 | 67.5% | 68 min | 2.76% | C |
| American Airlines | 3,362 | 68.7% | 86 min | 5.53% | C− |
| Republic Airways | 3,102 | 73.4% | 65 min | 5.09% | C− |
| Delta Air Lines | 562 | 71.8% | 81 min | 3.20% | C− |
| Spirit Airlines | 463 | 58.9% | 77 min | 8.86% | D− |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 350 | 53.1% | 123 min | 11.43% | F− |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 295 | 64.8% | 95 min | 1.69% | D |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 257 | 73.6% | 68 min | 1.17% | C |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 194 | 70.2% | 72 min | 1.55% | C |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 62 | 72.9% | 70 min | 4.84% | C− |
Spirit Airlines cancels 8.9% 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 January
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD to LGA · New York | 955 | 72.2% | 71 min | 7.23% | C− |
| ORD to DCA · Washington | 592 | 68.7% | 81 min | 6.25% | C− |
| ORD to MCO · Orlando | 540 | 69.3% | 73 min | 2.41% | C |
| ORD to BOS · Boston | 500 | 69.0% | 80 min | 6.40% | C− |
| ORD to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 500 | 68.8% | 81 min | 8.20% | C− |
| ORD to EWR · Newark | 479 | 73.9% | 67 min | 5.64% | C− |
| ORD to IAH · Houston | 468 | 79.1% | 71 min | 1.71% | B |
| ORD to LAX · Los Angeles | 463 | 70.7% | 53 min | 1.08% | C |
| ORD to MSP · Minneapolis | 451 | 65.6% | 81 min | 1.33% | C |
| ORD to PHX · Phoenix | 446 | 75.1% | 70 min | 1.79% | B |
| ORD to ATL · Atlanta | 444 | 73.3% | 62 min | 2.25% | C |
| ORD to MIA · Miami | 412 | 69.8% | 77 min | 4.13% | C− |
| ORD to DTW · Detroit | 408 | 59.7% | 91 min | 2.94% | D |
| ORD to DEN · Denver | 394 | 74.8% | 76 min | 0.25% | C+ |
| ORD to FLL · Fort Lauderdale | 381 | 67.9% | 78 min | 2.62% | C |
| ORD to MKE · Milwaukee | 373 | 54.8% | 94 min | 2.68% | F |
| ORD to IND · Indianapolisthin sample | 361 | 67.0% | 80 min | 3.32% | C− |
| ORD to LAS · Las Vegasthin sample | 360 | 73.7% | 71 min | 0.83% | C+ |
| ORD to CLT · Charlottethin sample | 333 | 73.6% | 81 min | 7.81% | C− |
| ORD to SFO · San Franciscothin sample | 327 | 74.2% | 85 min | 0.61% | C+ |
| ORD to BNA · Nashvillethin sample | 326 | 67.5% | 81 min | 5.52% | C− |
| ORD to PHL · Philadelphiathin sample | 320 | 68.4% | 93 min | 5.62% | C− |
| ORD to CLE · Clevelandthin sample | 320 | 67.4% | 87 min | 2.19% | C |
| ORD to RSW · Fort Myersthin sample | 318 | 70.6% | 70 min | 1.89% | C |
| ORD to MSN · Madisonthin sample | 318 | 57.1% | 77 min | 2.52% | D |
Delay causes
What held ORD up in January
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 625,000 reported delay minutes.
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 28%Carrier
- 22%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 comparison with the other months below is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 10%, so this operation carries roughly 1.7 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 624,983 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 3.74%, against 4.71% nationally. That is about one flight in 25 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. 13.6% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 7.6% 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 January
For a January trip through ORD: expect 67.4% on time and 3.74% cancelled, going by January 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 February73.7%
- 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.