Carrier route record
OOORD→LIT
SkyWest Airlines · Chicago to Little Rock
- Flights
- 421
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 29%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with SkyWest Airlines.
SkyWest on ORD to LIT sits in the middle of the pack with a C−. About seven flights in ten arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 6 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 421 flights, with a median arrival 1 minute early.
The national on-time rate over the same period is 77.3%, so SkyWest on ORD to LIT runs 6 points behind the country as a whole. Across a thousand flights that is about 59 extra late arrivals.
Key figures
On time
71.4%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 398 completed flights
Avg delay
78 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
5.46%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
74.0%
Every carrier on ORD to LIT, 1,432 flights
These figures cover 421 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 12.3% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule, against 8.3% nationally.
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Carrier by carrier
SkyWest against every carrier on ORD to LIT
SkyWest flew 421 of the 1,432 flights on ORD to LIT, about 29% of it. Its 71.4% on time is 3 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 74.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 100.0% to Republic at 64.3%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
Only one carrier clears this site's 365-flight floor here, so there is no comparison to draw. The table below is the full picture.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlinesthin sample | 3 | 100.0% | — | 0.00% | A+ |
| Envoy Air | 993 | 75.1% | 65 min | 1.81% | B |
| SkyWest Airlines (this page) | 421 | 71.4% | 78 min | 5.46% | C− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 15 | 64.3% | 128 min | 6.67% | D− |
Timetable by Aviasales, a Travelpayouts partner. Booking through it may earn this site a commission at no cost to you; it changes no figure here.
Departure window
When SkyWest runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 10 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am195 flights70.1%
- 11am–2pm83 flights69.9%
- 2pm–5pm93 flights78.3%
- 5pm–8pm2 flights—
- 8pm–5am48 flights68.2%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The best window here is not the first bank but the 2pm–5pm slot at 78.3% on time, ahead of 8pm–5am at 68.2%. Where the curve peaks mid-day rather than at dawn, the constraint is usually congestion at one end rather than the aircraft's own rotation. The 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 195 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
SkyWest on ORD to LIT through the year
November is the best month on the calendar at 80.0% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. July was the busiest month here, with 62 flights.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 81.0% on time and Friday the weakest at 58.3%, a spread of 23 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late SkyWest on ORD to LIT runs when it is late
The 114 late arrivals split 36 under half an hour, 29 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 49 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early90 flights22.6%
- Within 15 min194 flights48.7%
- 15–29 min late36 flights9.0%
- 30–59 min late29 flights7.3%
- 1–2 hours late25 flights6.3%
- 2+ hours late24 flights6.0%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 398 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 95 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 6 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 25 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 LIT.
The worst days
Worst days for SkyWest on ORD to LIT
The latest arrival of the period was on 22 February 2026, 10 hours 18 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as extreme weather. The five worst days are spread across February, March, July and August, with no single month standing out.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 22 February 2026 | 10 hours 18 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 6 March 2026 | 8 hours | National Airspace System |
| 27 July 2026 | 4 hours 33 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 13 March 2026 | 3 hours 50 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 9 August 2026 | 3 hours 43 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why SkyWest 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 8,845 reported delay minutes.
- 30%Carrier
- 29%Late-arriving aircraft
- 23%National Airspace System
- 18%Extreme weather
Extreme weather accounts for 18% 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 3.0 times the usual weather exposure. The split is drawn from 8,845 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations run at 5.46%, against 1.89% nationally. That is roughly one flight in twenty 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
12.3% 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 552 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 64.1% on time across 423 flights, 7 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 7 points of difference.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 421 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 SkyWest on ORD to LIT
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 5.46% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 2pm–5pm departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 398 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
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.