Carrier route record
AAGRR→ORD
American Airlines · Grand Rapids to Chicago
- Flights
- 480
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 12%
- Carriers
- 6
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.
American on GRR 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 77.3%. The late ones land about 2.3 hours behind schedule. That rests on 480 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Republic Airways, flew 666 at 72.5% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate American on GRR 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
74.0%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 461 completed flights
Avg delay
138 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
3.75%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
69.1%
Every carrier on GRR to ORD, 4,079 flights
These figures cover 480 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 11.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
American against every carrier on GRR to ORD
American flew 480 of the 4,079 flights on GRR to ORD, about 12% of it. Its 74.0% on time is 5 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 69.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of six carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 74.0% to PSA at 0.0%. One 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 72.5% of the time; United Airlines manages 63.0%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,085 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlines (this page) | 480 | 74.0% | 138 min | 3.75% | C− |
| Republic Airways | 666 | 72.5% | 84 min | 3.45% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlines | 879 | 70.4% | 111 min | 3.75% | C− |
| Envoy Air | 967 | 70.2% | 72 min | 3.72% | C− |
| United Airlines | 1,085 | 63.0% | 78 min | 1.11% | D |
| PSA Airlinesthin sample | 2 | 0.0% | 690 min | 0.00% | F+ |
SkyWest Airlines cancels 3.8% 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.
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Departure window
When American runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 34 points, against 10 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am282 flights74.6%
- 8am–11am99 flights84.4%
- 11am–2pm52 flights71.2%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm46 flights50.0%
- 8pm–5am1 flights—
Scale runs 40% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 50.0% on time, against 84.4% for the 8am–11am 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 282 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
American on GRR to ORD through the year
- Jul–Sep 202557 flights74.5%
- Oct–Dec 2025126 flights76.6%
- Jan–Mar 2026123 flights61.9%
- Apr–Jun 2026138 flights85.2%
- Jul–Sep 202636 flights63.9%
Scale runs 55% to 90%.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 74.0% on time across 480 flights.
American on GRR to ORD did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 85.2% on time and its weakest Jan–Mar 2026 at 61.9%, a swing of 23 points on roughly 96 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 79.6% on time and Sunday the weakest at 69.6%, a spread of 10 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late American on GRR to ORD runs when it is late
American on GRR to ORD often beats the schedule: 138 of 461 completed flights, 30%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 120 late arrivals split 37 under half an hour, 31 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 52 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early138 flights29.9%
- Within 15 min203 flights44.0%
- 15–29 min late37 flights8.0%
- 30–59 min late31 flights6.7%
- 1–2 hours late20 flights4.3%
- 2+ hours late32 flights6.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 461 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 78 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 4 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 46 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 American on GRR to ORD
The latest arrival of the period was on 24 May 2026, 26 hours 52 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as extreme weather. On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage).
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 24 May 2026 | 26 hours 52 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 9 September 2025 | 18 hours 54 minutes | Carrier |
| 27 October 2025 | 16 hours 29 minutes | Carrier |
| 16 February 2026 | 13 hours 27 minutes | Carrier |
| 19 May 2026 | 10 hours 4 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why American runs late on this route
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 17,000 reported delay minutes.
- 32%Carrier
- 31%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%Extreme weather
- 14%National Airspace System
Extreme weather accounts for 23% 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 monthly strip above is the more useful view of the risk. The national share is 6%, so this operation carries roughly 3.7 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 16,548 reported delay minutes.
The practical consequence: the 8am–11am departure is the one that starts clean. Its aircraft has no earlier leg to be late from, which is exactly why that window shows 84.4% on time here.
Cancellations run at 3.75%, against 1.89% 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.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
11.3% 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.
At 137 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 58.7% on time across 478 flights, 15 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 15 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 480 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 American on GRR to ORD
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.75% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you about 2.3 hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 8am–11am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 461 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- GRR to ORD, every carrier
- American on ORD to GRR, the return leg
- Republic Airways on GRR to ORD72.5%
- SkyWest Airlines on GRR to ORD70.4%
- Envoy Air on GRR to ORD70.2%
- United Airlines on GRR to ORD63.0%
- American Airlines network-wide record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.05 million flight records
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.