Carrier route record
UAORD→PNS
United Airlines · Chicago to Pensacola
- Flights
- 363
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 48%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on ORD to PNS lands a B+, level with the national rate of 77.3%. Roughly one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by a little over an hour on average. That rests on 363 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate United on ORD to PNS from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
77.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 361 completed flights
Avg delay
77 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
0.55%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
78.8%
Every carrier on ORD to PNS, 756 flights
These figures cover 363 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 9.7% 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 ORD to PNS
United flew 363 of the 756 flights on ORD to PNS, about 48% of it. Its 77.8% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 78.8%. Ranked by on-time rate it is last of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from SkyWest at 90.0% to United at 77.8%. Three 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 21 | 90.0% | 101 min | 4.76% | A− |
| Republic Airwaysthin sample | 84 | 82.9% | 68 min | 2.38% | B |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 288 | 78.1% | 59 min | 2.78% | B |
| United Airlines (this page)thin sample | 363 | 77.8% | 77 min | 0.55% | B+ |
Flight by flight
United flight numbers on ORD to PNS
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 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 33 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am—
- 8am–11am289 flights79.2%
- 11am–2pm43 flights86.0%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm31 flights53.3%
- 8pm–5am—
Scale runs 45% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 53.3% on time, against 86.0% for the 11am–2pm 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 289 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on ORD to PNS through the year
September is the best month on the calendar at 90.0% on time. Shoulder season thins the schedule and takes the summer weather with it, and the operation gets its margin back. March was the busiest month here, with 50 flights.
Across the week, Monday is the strongest day at 87.2% on time and Sunday the weakest at 66.7%, a spread of 21 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late United on ORD to PNS runs when it is late
United on ORD to PNS often beats the schedule: 99 of 361 completed flights, 27%, arrived 15 minutes or more early. The 80 late arrivals split 25 under half an hour, 20 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 35 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early99 flights27.4%
- Within 15 min182 flights50.4%
- 15–29 min late25 flights6.9%
- 30–59 min late20 flights5.5%
- 1–2 hours late21 flights5.8%
- 2+ hours late14 flights3.9%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 361 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 63 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 7 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 24 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 PNS.
The worst days
Worst days for United on ORD to PNS
The latest arrival of the period was on 5 September 2025, 6 hours 23 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as a late-arriving aircraft. The same cause led on four of the five worst days.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 5 September 2025 | 6 hours 23 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 18 May 2026 | 5 hours 42 minutes | Extreme weather |
| 2 April 2026 | 5 hours 35 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 17 July 2026 | 4 hours 11 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
| 10 December 2025 | 3 hours 35 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
Late-arriving aircraft accounts for 56% of the 6,124 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 56%Late-arriving aircraft
- 18%Carrier
- 16%National Airspace System
- 10%Extreme weather
56% of delay minutes trace back to a late-arriving aircraft, meaning the plane was already behind before it got here. Across 6,124 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 to one. The split is drawn from 6,124 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations are rare at 0.55%, below the national 1.89% and low enough to earn the plus on the grade. Roughly one flight in 100 is called off; the risk here is arriving late, not not arriving.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
9.7% 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 794 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 74.0% on time across 363 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.
One caution: this is a thin sample. 363 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 PNS
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 363 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 77.8% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 361 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.