Carrier route record
ASANC→ORD
Alaska Airlines · Anchorage to Chicago
- Flights
- 211
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 27%
- Carriers
- 3
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Alaska Airlines.
Alaska on ANC to ORD sits in the middle of the pack with a C+. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land about 40 minutes behind schedule. That rests on 211 flights, with a median arrival 1 minute late.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Alaska on ANC to ORD from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
74.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 209 completed flights
Avg delay
40 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.47%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
77.2%
Every carrier on ANC to ORD, 787 flights
These figures cover 211 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. On-time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the same threshold the Department of Transportation uses in its own reports. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and counted separately, which is why the cancellation column matters on its own.
Carrier by carrier
Alaska against every carrier on ANC to ORD
Alaska flew 211 of the 787 flights on ANC to ORD, about 27% of it. Its 74.6% on time is 3 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 77.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of three carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 80.8% to American at 70.1%. One of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 438 | 80.8% | 70 min | 1.83% | B |
| Alaska Airlines (this page)thin sample | 211 | 74.6% | 40 min | 0.47% | C+ |
| American Airlinesthin sample | 138 | 70.1% | 53 min | 0.72% | C+ |
Departure window
When Alaska runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 211 flights.
The overnight block holds up unusually well at 74.6% on time across 211 flights. Red-eyes fly into empty airspace and empty gates, and they are the first rotation of the aircraft's day rather than the last. The 8pm–5am window is the busiest, with 211 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Alaska on ANC to ORD through the year
- Jul–Sep 2025128 flights77.2%
- Oct–Dec 202512 flights—
- Apr–Jun 202671 flights70.4%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 74.6% on time across 211 flights.
Split by quarter, Alaska on ANC to ORD logged 128 flights in Jul–Sep 2025, 12 flights in Oct–Dec 2025 and 71 flights in Apr–Jun 2026. Fewer than three of those quarters carried the 30 completed flights this site needs before printing a rate, so the 74.6% annual figure is the one to use.
Across the week, Sunday is the strongest day at 80.0% on time and Friday the weakest at 67.6%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Alaska runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 57% of the 2,115 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.
- 57%National Airspace System
- 24%Carrier
- 19%Late-arriving aircraft
57% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 1,204 minutes out of 2,115, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 2,115 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.47%, below the national 1.81% 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
5.7% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.1%. 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 40 minutes, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 2,846 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg runs 77.4% on time across 210 flights, within 3 points of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 211 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor but not enough to pin the rate down tightly, and a single bad week moves it by more than a point. Treat the grade as a rough reading.
What to do with this
Booking Alaska on ANC to ORD
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 211 flights over twelve months is enough to clear this site's floor and not enough to be confident to better than a couple of points. The 74.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 209 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- ANC to ORD, every carrier
- Alaska on ORD to ANC, the return leg
- United Airlines on ANC to ORD80.8%
- American Airlines on ANC to ORD70.1%
- Alaska Airlines network-wide record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) delay statistics
- How to read this site: grades, sample sizes, and honest caveats
- Late aircraft, weather, or the airline: what actually causes US flight delays
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.