Carrier route record
UAORD→BDL
United Airlines · Chicago to Hartford
- Flights
- 841
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 36%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on ORD to BDL 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 77.6%. The late ones land about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 841 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Republic Airways, flew 644 at 80.5% on time.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.6%, so United on ORD to BDL runs 4 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 40 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
73.6%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 830 completed flights
Avg delay
65 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.31%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
75.4%
Every carrier on ORD to BDL, 2,350 flights
These figures cover 841 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.4% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
United against every carrier on ORD to BDL
United flew 841 of the 2,350 flights on ORD to BDL, about 36% of it. Its 73.6% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 75.4%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number four of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 84.9% to American at 67.6%. 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 80.5% of the time; American Airlines manages 67.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 461 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 141 | 84.9% | 45 min | 1.42% | B |
| Republic Airways | 644 | 80.5% | 79 min | 3.42% | B− |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 263 | 77.4% | 73 min | 2.28% | B |
| United Airlines (this page) | 841 | 73.6% | 65 min | 1.31% | C |
| American Airlines | 461 | 67.6% | 90 min | 3.25% | C− |
Republic Airways cancels 3.4% 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 ORD to BDL
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 35 points, against 13 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am88 flights94.3%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm365 flights80.8%
- 2pm–5pm33 flights93.9%
- 5pm–8pm353 flights59.4%
- 8pm–5am2 flights—
Scale runs 50% to 100%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 59.4% on time, against 94.3% 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 365 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on ORD to BDL through the year
October is the best month on the calendar at 86.1% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. October was the busiest month here, with 108 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 77.0% on time and Sunday the weakest at 67.5%. 10 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 51% of the 14,000 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.
- 51%Late-arriving aircraft
- 26%Carrier
- 18%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
51% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. That is a cascade, and cascades start small and grow through the day. Across 14,000 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 9 to one. It is the strongest argument for booking the first departure of the morning, when the aircraft has been sitting at the gate overnight with nothing to inherit. The split is drawn from 14,332 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 94.3% on time here.
Cancellations sit at 1.31% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.00%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.4% 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 an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 783 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. It is also long enough that the aircraft usually flies three or four legs a day rather than six, which slows how fast delay compounds.
The return leg runs 71.5% on time across 841 flights, within 2 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. 841 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 United on ORD to BDL
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 841 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 73.6% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 830 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- ORD to BDL, every carrier
- United on BDL to ORD, the return leg
- Envoy Air on ORD to BDL84.9%
- Republic Airways on ORD to BDL80.5%
- SkyWest Airlines on ORD to BDL77.4%
- American Airlines on ORD to BDL67.6%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) delay statistics
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
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.