Airport month record
ORDOCT
Chicago O'Hare International in October 2025
- Departures
- 31,096
- Month
- October 2025
- National, same month
- 79.7%
- Carriers
- 12
Historical statistics for October 2025, not live status or a forecast for this year’s October. For today’s conditions at ORD, see live FAA status.
ORD in October sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 79.7%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 31,096 flights, of which Republic Airways flew 2,004 at 82.8% on time.
Republic Airways is the most reliable of the nine carriers covered here at 82.8% on time across 2,004 flights.
Key figures
On time
74.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 30,965 completed departures
Avg delay
64 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.23%
Nationally in October: 0.53%
Whole year
70.8%
ORD across all twelve months
These figures cover 31,096 departures from Chicago O'Hare International in October 2025. 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
October next to ORD's other months
Against ORD's own year, October ran 4 points better than the twelve-month rate of 70.8%, which makes it number three of twelve months, best first. Cancellations were unusually low for ORD in October, at 0.23% against 2.80% across the year. Either side of it, September ran 79.2% on time and November 73.3%, so this month sits in line with its neighbours.
| Month | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | 28,867 | 79.2% | 68 min | 0.42% | B+ |
| October 2025 (this page) | 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 | 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− |
| July 2026 | 33,010 | 71.4% | 85 min | 4.18% | C− |
| August 2026 | 33,187 | 64.6% | 87 min | 2.31% | D |
Departure window
The best time of day to leave ORD in October
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 23 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am3,560 flights88.3%
- 8am–11am6,738 flights79.9%
- 11am–2pm5,044 flights78.0%
- 2pm–5pm5,991 flights70.5%
- 5pm–8pm5,407 flights67.9%
- 8pm–5am4,356 flights65.5%
Scale runs 55% to 95%.
Book the early departure. Flights leaving between 5am–8am arrive on time 88.3% of the time, against 65.5% for the overnight window. That is 23 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 6,738 flights scheduled in it.
Across the week, Wednesday is the strongest day at 79.1% on time and Monday the weakest at 68.6%, a spread of 11 points.
Carrier by carrier
Which airlines ran best at ORD in October
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 82.8% of the time; American Airlines manages 70.8%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 5,626 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 9,150 | 76.1% | 53 min | 0.19% | B+ |
| SkyWest Airlines | 6,567 | 70.8% | 70 min | 0.05% | C+ |
| American Airlines | 5,626 | 70.8% | 76 min | 0.36% | C+ |
| Envoy Air | 4,712 | 79.1% | 47 min | 0.06% | B+ |
| Republic Airways | 2,004 | 82.8% | 51 min | 0.10% | B+ |
| Delta Air Lines | 1,077 | 73.6% | 72 min | 0.84% | C+ |
| Southwest Airlines | 422 | 80.0% | 42 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| Spirit Airlines | 405 | 80.7% | 54 min | 0.99% | B+ |
| Frontier Airlines | 387 | 71.2% | 117 min | 0.26% | C+ |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 352 | 64.6% | 126 min | 0.57% | D+ |
| Alaska Airlinesthin sample | 292 | 65.4% | 50 min | 2.40% | C |
| JetBlue Airwaysthin sample | 102 | 77.0% | 121 min | 1.96% | B |
The spread between Republic and American is 12 points, wide enough that it should decide the booking. On a hundred trips that is 12 more arrivals inside the on-time window.
Route by route
Busiest routes out of ORD in October
| Route | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORD to LGA · New York | 1,025 | 63.7% | 75 min | 1.95% | D |
| ORD to BOS · Boston | 695 | 57.6% | 77 min | 0.86% | D+ |
| ORD to DEN · Denver | 616 | 78.5% | 74 min | 0.16% | B+ |
| ORD to DFW · Dallas-Fort Worth | 607 | 75.4% | 86 min | 0.33% | B+ |
| ORD to DCA · Washington | 595 | 75.0% | 58 min | 0.67% | B+ |
| ORD to MSP · Minneapolis | 574 | 76.8% | 77 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ORD to ATL · Atlanta | 569 | 78.2% | 51 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ORD to LAX · Los Angeles | 565 | 72.6% | 47 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| ORD to MCO · Orlando | 535 | 80.1% | 61 min | 0.75% | B+ |
| ORD to SFO · San Francisco | 522 | 70.8% | 60 min | 0.38% | C+ |
| ORD to DTW · Detroit | 520 | 74.4% | 64 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| ORD to IAH · Houston | 518 | 78.7% | 50 min | 0.19% | B+ |
| ORD to EWR · Newark | 502 | 62.9% | 72 min | 0.40% | D+ |
| ORD to SEA · Seattle | 496 | 74.5% | 50 min | 0.60% | C+ |
| ORD to LAS · Las Vegas | 484 | 75.6% | 66 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ORD to BNA · Nashville | 478 | 66.9% | 68 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| ORD to MKE · Milwaukee | 463 | 67.8% | 106 min | 0.00% | C+ |
| ORD to PHL · Philadelphia | 443 | 76.7% | 100 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ORD to CLE · Cleveland | 441 | 75.5% | 67 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| ORD to PHX · Phoenix | 439 | 75.0% | 53 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| ORD to CMH · Columbus | 439 | 76.0% | 53 min | 0.23% | B+ |
| ORD to CVG · Cincinnati | 417 | 77.7% | 53 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ORD to IND · Indianapolis | 414 | 81.1% | 39 min | 0.00% | B+ |
| ORD to PIT · Pittsburgh | 372 | 79.7% | 43 min | 0.27% | B+ |
| ORD to GRR · Grand Rapidsthin sample | 360 | 75.4% | 51 min | 0.28% | B+ |
Delay causes
What held ORD up in October
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 501,000 reported delay minutes.
- 38%Late-arriving aircraft
- 36%Carrier
- 22%National Airspace System
- 4%Extreme weather
- 0%Security
38% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 501,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 11 to one. The split is drawn from 501,067 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.23%, below the national 0.53% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
8.0% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 6.3%, so 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 October
For a October trip through ORD: this is one of the better months to be flying from here, 74.7% on time with 0.23% cancelled. That is a base rate for the month as a whole; a single storm can still spoil a particular day.
Related
Where to go next
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD), the whole year
- ORD in September79.2%
- ORD in November73.3%
- ORD in December61.0%
- ORD in January67.4%
- ORD in February73.7%
- ORD in March65.9%
- ORD in April69.7%
- ORD in May76.1%
- ORD in June71.3%
- ORD in July71.4%
- ORD in August64.6%
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated ; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.