Route reliability record
ORD→AUS
Chicago to Austin
- Flights
- 3,185
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Distance
- 977 mi
- Carriers
- 6
This route sits in the middle of the pack with a C. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 5 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 3,185 ORD to AUS flights, of which United Airlines flew 1,550 at 77.8% on time.
Best time to fly ORD to AUS: a 5am–8am departure, ideally on a Tuesday. Flights in that window arrived on time 89.2% of the time and Tuesday flights 76.3%, against 71.9% for the route overall.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so this route runs 5 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 54 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
71.9%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 3,121 completed flights
Avg delay
75 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.88%
National rate is 1.89%
Best carrier
United
77.8% on time across 1,550 flights
These figures cover 3,185 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
Which airline is most reliable on ORD to AUS
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. United Airlines arrives on time 77.8% of the time; American Airlines manages 65.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 1,206 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 1,550 | 77.8% | 66 min | 1.10% | B |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 88 | 73.3% | 68 min | 2.27% | C |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 95 | 68.9% | 54 min | 5.26% | C− |
| Southwest Airlinesthin sample | 145 | 67.1% | 64 min | 0.69% | C+ |
| Frontier Airlinesthin sample | 101 | 65.6% | 128 min | 4.95% | C− |
| American Airlines | 1,206 | 65.6% | 81 min | 2.49% | C |
The spread between United 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.
Flight by flight
Flights on ORD to AUS
The flight numbers below flew this route at least 250 times in the period, busiest first. Each has its own record, with its schedule and delay causes.
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Best ways to make this trip
The most reliable ways to fly Chicago to Austin
Every airline on this route and on the routes between nearby airports, ranked by how often a scheduled flight actually operated and arrived on time. 1 of the top 3 use a different airport at one end.
| Option | Airline | Success | On time | Cancelled | Best departure | Most punctual flight |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. ORD → AUSChicago to Austin | United Airlines | 76.9% | 77.8% | 1.10% | 5am–8am, Sat | UA 622 13:30 |
| 2. MDW → AUSChicago to Austin | Southwest Airlines | 75.2% | 75.9% | 0.95% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
| 3. ORD → AUSChicago to Austin | American Airlines | 64.0% | 65.6% | 2.49% | 5am–8am, Tue | — |
Success is the share of scheduled flights that operated and arrived less than 15 minutes late, so a cancelled flight counts against it. “(route)” means the best time comes from every carrier on the route rather than this airline alone.
Departure window
The best time of day to leave
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 31 points, against 12 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am321 flights89.2%
- 8am–11am668 flights79.1%
- 11am–2pm853 flights74.3%
- 2pm–5pm428 flights64.8%
- 5pm–8pm433 flights65.2%
- 8pm–5am482 flights58.2%
Scale runs 50% to 95%.
The 8pm–5am window is where this operation falls apart: 58.2% on time, against 89.2% 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 11am–2pm window is the busiest, with 853 flights scheduled in it.
Explore
Filter ORD to AUS by airline, time, month and day
Pick a breakdown and a carrier. The dashed mark on each row is the same slice for every US flight.
On ORD to AUS, the best departure window is 5am–8am at 89.2% on time and the worst is 8pm–5am at 58.2%, a wide gap of 31.0 points. All US flights leaving 5am–8am ran 89.3%.
- 5–8am89.2%
- 8–11am79.1%
- 11am–2pm74.3%
- 2–5pm64.8%
- 5–8pm65.2%
- 8pm–5am58.2%
best all US flightsScale 50% to 95%.
Across the year
When delays peak on this route
This route's year swings by 21 points from best month to worst, which is wide. An annual average tells you very little about the week you are actually flying, so read the strip rather than the headline if your dates are fixed.
August is the worst month at 65.0% on time, 21 points below February, the best at 85.9%. 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. March was the busiest month here, with 302 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 76.3% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.2%, a spread of 9 points.
Delay causes
Why this route gets delayed
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 66,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 8%Extreme weather
51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 66,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 65,707 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 89.2% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.88% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.13%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here actually 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.
The 977 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 runs 72.4% on time across 3,182 flights, within half a point of this direction. The two legs are scored separately because they usually differ; on this city pair they happen not to.
The sample behind these figures is 3,185 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.
Work out the risk of missing a connection in AUS after this flight
What to do with this
Booking this route
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. February runs 85.9% on time and August 65.0%, a swing of 21 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 3,121 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Common questions
ORD to AUS questions
How often is ORD to AUS delayed?
Roughly one flight in four arrives at least 15 minutes late, which is the Department of Transportation's definition of a delayed arrival. That works out to 28.1% of the 3,185 flights in this analysis, against 22.7% nationally. Delayed flights are late by a little over an hour on average.
Which airline is most reliable on ORD to AUS?
United Airlines leads at 77.8% on time across 1,550 flights. American Airlines is at the other end on 65.6%, a gap of 12 points. Sample size matters as much as the percentage: a rate built from a few hundred flights moves around far more than one built from ten thousand.
What time of day has the fewest delays on ORD to AUS?
The 5am–8am departure window is the strongest at 89.2% on time. The 8pm–5am window is the weakest at 58.2%, 31 points behind. Later departures inherit delays from earlier flights the same aircraft has already flown, which is why the curve slopes the way it does.
How bad are August delays on ORD to AUS?
August is the weakest month at 65.0% on time, compared with 85.9% in February. Across the year that is 21 points between the best and worst months. Moving flexible dates out of that month is one of the few things that reliably helps.
Related
Where to go next
- AUS to ORD — the return legseparate record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) delay statistics
- Austin-Bergstrom International (AUS) delay statistics
- United Airlines on ORD to AUS77.8%
- Southwest Airlines on ORD to AUS67.1%
- Frontier Airlines on ORD to AUS65.6%
- American Airlines on ORD to AUS65.6%
- ORD to LGA, a related route66.6%
- DEN to AUS, a related route76.2%
- ORD to BOS, a related route66.6%
- United Airlines on-time record77.8%
- Envoy Air on-time record73.3%
- Republic Airways on-time record68.9%
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
Direction matters. ORD to AUS and AUS to ORD are scored separately because they are separate operations, with different departure banks and different aircraft. Compare the return leg.
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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.