Carrier route record
YXORD→PWM
Republic Airways · Chicago to Portland
- Flights
- 558
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 38%
- Carriers
- 4
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with Republic Airways.
Republic on ORD to PWM sits in the middle of the pack with a B. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 2 points worse than the national rate of 77.6%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 558 flights, with a median arrival 7 minutes early.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate Republic on ORD to PWM from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
75.8%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 541 completed flights
Avg delay
69 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.87%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
74.0%
Every carrier on ORD to PWM, 1,486 flights
These figures cover 558 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. The median arrival is 7 minutes early, which is the part an average hides: most flights here are fine, and the on-time rate is decided by a tail of badly late ones. On-time means under 15 minutes late, the DOT's own threshold.
Carrier by carrier
Republic against every carrier on ORD to PWM
Republic flew 558 of the 1,486 flights on ORD to PWM, about 38% of it. Its 75.8% on time is 2 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 74.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of four carriers on the route, where the range runs from Envoy at 82.3% to SkyWest at 69.4%. 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Envoy Airthin sample | 199 | 82.3% | 72 min | 3.52% | B− |
| Republic Airways (this page) | 558 | 75.8% | 69 min | 2.87% | B |
| United Airlines | 429 | 71.0% | 70 min | 1.17% | C |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 300 | 69.4% | 68 min | 3.00% | C |
Departure window
When Republic runs best on this route
Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 31 points, against half a point between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am6 flights—
- 8am–11am180 flights87.7%
- 11am–2pm54 flights80.4%
- 2pm–5pm67 flights81.8%
- 5pm–8pm172 flights57.2%
- 8pm–5am79 flights79.5%
Scale runs 50% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 57.2% on time, against 87.7% 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 8am–11am window is the busiest, with 180 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
Republic on ORD to PWM through the year
December is the weak month at 58.1% on time, against 87.9% in May. Winter delays cluster: a single storm system can account for most of a month's shortfall, so an average December hides both very good weeks and genuinely unflyable days. July was the busiest month here, with 78 flights.
Across the week, Tuesday is the strongest day at 82.7% on time and Monday the weakest at 71.1%. 12 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why Republic 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 9,066 reported delay minutes.
- 40%Late-arriving aircraft
- 34%Carrier
- 20%National Airspace System
- 6%Extreme weather
40% 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 9,066 reported delay minutes here, that single category outweighs weather by 6 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 9,066 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 87.7% on time here.
Cancellations run at 2.87%, against 1.81% nationally. That is roughly one flight in 30 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
7.4% 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 a little over an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 900 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 is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 82.3% on time across 558 flights, 7 points above 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. 558 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 Republic on ORD to PWM
Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 2.87% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you a little over an hour; 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. 541 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- ORD to PWM, every carrier
- Republic on PWM to ORD, the return leg
- Envoy Air on ORD to PWM82.3%
- United Airlines on ORD to PWM71.0%
- SkyWest Airlines on ORD to PWM69.4%
- Republic Airways network-wide record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) delay statistics
- The US routes with the most cancellations
- Why the first flight of the morning is statistically safest
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.