Carrier route record
UADCA→ORD
United Airlines · Washington to Chicago
- Flights
- 3,411
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 48%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on DCA 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, 4 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land an hour and a half behind schedule. That rests on 3,411 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Republic Airways, flew 1,155 at 75.6% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate United on DCA 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
73.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,314 completed flights
Avg delay
87 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.52%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
73.8%
Every carrier on DCA to ORD, 7,112 flights
These figures cover 3,411 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
United against every carrier on DCA to ORD
United flew 3,411 of the 7,112 flights on DCA to ORD, about 48% of it. Its 73.8% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 73.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 80.9% to SkyWest at 60.4%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The two carriers here are closely matched: 3 points separate the best from the worst. At that spread, schedule and price are better tie-breakers than reliability. Sample sizes are shown so you can see which rows are worth weighing.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 171 | 80.9% | 81 min | 4.68% | B− |
| Republic Airways | 1,155 | 75.6% | 75 min | 6.06% | B− |
| United Airlines (this page) | 3,411 | 73.8% | 87 min | 2.52% | C |
| American Airlines | 2,271 | 72.9% | 89 min | 3.61% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 104 | 60.4% | 93 min | 6.73% | D− |
Republic Airways cancels 6.1% 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.
Flight by flight
United flight numbers on DCA to ORD
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Departure window
When United runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 38 points, against 3 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am631 flights88.5%
- 8am–11am721 flights87.9%
- 11am–2pm628 flights81.8%
- 2pm–5pm479 flights67.2%
- 5pm–8pm854 flights50.4%
- 8pm–5am98 flights57.3%
Scale runs 40% to 95%.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 50.4% on time, against 88.5% 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 5pm–8pm window is the busiest, with 854 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on DCA to ORD through the year
August is the worst month at 65.3% on time, 14 points below February, the best at 79.6%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. August was the busiest month here, with 364 flights.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 80.1% on time and Friday the weakest at 69.0%, a spread of 11 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late United on DCA to ORD runs when it is late
The 868 late arrivals split 264 under half an hour, 240 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 364 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early753 flights22.7%
- Within 15 min1,693 flights51.1%
- 15–29 min late264 flights8.0%
- 30–59 min late240 flights7.2%
- 1–2 hours late181 flights5.5%
- 2+ hours late183 flights5.5%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 3,314 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 591 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 50 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 327 flights left on time yet arrived 15 minutes late or more, so that delay built up after pushback: in the air, in a holding pattern or on the ground at ORD.
The worst days
Worst days for United on DCA to ORD
The latest arrival of the period was on 2 April 2026, 19 hours 7 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as extreme weather. Four of the five worst days fell in April 2026.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 2 April 2026 | 19 hours 7 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 27 July 2026 | 16 hours 1 minute | National Airspace System |
| 29 April 2026 | 15 hours 27 minutes | Carrier |
| 27 April 2026 | 15 hours 22 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 2 April 2026 | 14 hours 52 minutes | Extreme weather |
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
National Airspace System accounts for 51% of the 76,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 51%National Airspace System
- 33%Late-arriving aircraft
- 11%Carrier
- 6%Extreme weather
51% 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 38,000 minutes out of 76,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 75,704 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 5am–8am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 88.5% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.52%, against 1.89% nationally. That is about one flight in 40 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
11.0% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally. Ninety minutes is the honest minimum for a connection here, and two hours if the onward flight is on a separate ticket.
The 612 miles between these two airports put this in the middle of the US network, around two and a half to three hours of block time. That is enough cruise to absorb a ten-minute late pushback and not enough to absorb thirty.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 70.1% on time across 3,411 flights, 4 points below 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.
The sample behind these figures is 3,411 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
What to do with this
Booking United on DCA to ORD
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 79.6% on time and August 65.3%, a swing of 14 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 3,314 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- DCA to ORD, every carrier
- United on ORD to DCA, the return leg
- Envoy Air on DCA to ORD80.9%
- Republic Airways on DCA to ORD75.6%
- American Airlines on DCA to ORD72.9%
- SkyWest Airlines on DCA to ORD60.4%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Ronald Reagan Washington National (DCA) delay statistics
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.