UACVG→ORD

United flew 946 of the 4,630 flights on CVG to ORD, about 20% of it. Its 68.5% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 70.2%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number four of six carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 77.8% to American at 41.8%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.

The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Republic Airways arrives on time 77.8% of the time; SkyWest Airlines manages 58.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 895 flights means less than a ten-point one.

For anyone connecting, the number to weigh is not the on-time rate but the tail behind it. 10.2% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.1% 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.

At 264 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 8am–11am window matters as much as it does.

The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 72.4% on time across 945 flights, 4 points above this direction. Departure banks, aircraft rotations and the congestion at each end all differ, so scoring the two directions together would average away a real 4 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 946 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.