Carrier route record

UAORF→ORD

United Airlines · Norfolk to Chicago

Flights: 592
Period: September 2025 to August 2026
Share of route: 30%
Carriers: 6

Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.

United on ORF to ORD sits in the middle of the pack with a C. Close to three flights in four arrive on time by the DOT's definition, 3 points worse than the national rate of 77.3%. The late ones land a little over an hour behind schedule. That rests on 592 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Republic Airways, flew 448 at 80.7% on time.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate United on ORF to ORD from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.

On time

74.5%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 581 completed flights

Avg delay

72 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

1.52%

National rate is 1.89%

Whole route

76.7%

Every carrier on ORF to ORD, 1,959 flights

These figures cover 592 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.4% 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 ORF to ORD

United flew 592 of the 1,959 flights on ORF to ORD, about 30% of it. Its 74.5% on time is 2 points worse than the route as a whole, which runs 76.7%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number five of six carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 80.7% to American at 40.0%. Three 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 80.7% of the time; Envoy Air manages 74.6%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 443 flights means less than a ten-point one.

On-time performance by carrier on ORF to ORD
Airline	Flights	On time	Avg delay	Cancelled	Grade
Republic Airways	448	80.7%	64 min	1.56%	B
SkyWest Airlinesthin sample	279	80.7%	75 min	1.43%	B
PSA Airlinesthin sample	186	74.9%	81 min	7.53%	C−
Envoy Air	443	74.6%	74 min	2.48%	C
United Airlines (this page)	592	74.5%	72 min	1.52%	C
American Airlinesthin sample	11	40.0%	79 min	0.00%	F+

Republic leads Envoy by 6 points. Real, but small enough that a better departure time on the weaker carrier can outweigh it.

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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 27 points, against 6 points between the best and worst carrier.

5am–8am230 flights86.7%
8am–11am86 flights80.7%
11am–2pm19 flights—
2pm–5pm54 flights64.2%
5pm–8pm203 flights59.7%
8pm–5am—

Scale runs 50% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.

The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 59.7% on time, against 86.7% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 230 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

United on ORF to ORD through the year

Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.February best, January worst

January is the weak month at 58.6% on time, against 88.7% in February. 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. May was the busiest month here, with 73 flights.

Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 79.7% on time and Sunday the weakest at 66.7%, a spread of 13 points.

Arrival by arrival

How late United on ORF to ORD runs when it is late

The 148 late arrivals split 56 under half an hour, 43 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 49 an hour or more.

15+ min early128 flights22.0%
Within 15 min305 flights52.5%
15–29 min late56 flights9.6%
30–59 min late43 flights7.4%
1–2 hours late23 flights4.0%
2+ hours late26 flights4.5%

Scale runs 0% to 100%.

Share of 581 completed flights by arrival against schedule.

Time lost at the gate mostly stays lost. Of 86 departures that left 15 minutes late or more, only 6 made it up before arrival. In the other direction, 68 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 ORD.

The worst days

Worst days for United on ORF to ORD

The latest arrival of the period was on 27 April 2026, 7 hours 59 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as national airspace system delay. The five worst days are spread across April, March, October and November, with no single month standing out.

The latest arrivals of United on ORF to ORD in the period
Date	Arrived late by	Largest filed cause
27 April 2026	7 hours 59 minutes	National Airspace System
15 March 2026	5 hours 53 minutes	National Airspace System
27 April 2026	5 hours 39 minutes	Carrier
10 October 2025	5 hours 35 minutes	Late-arriving aircraft
29 November 2025	5 hours 28 minutes	Late-arriving aircraft

Delay causes

Why United runs late on this route

National Airspace System accounts for 57% of the 11,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.

National Airspace System
57%
Carrier
27%
Late-arriving aircraft
14%
Extreme weather
2%

57% of delay minutes are charged to the National Airspace System: air traffic volume, runway configuration, ground stops. No carrier can price its way out of that, which is why airport choice moves the number here more than carrier choice does. That is 6,028 minutes out of 11,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 10,609 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations sit at 1.52% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.34%.

Connections and stage length

What a delay here costs

8.4% of arrivals land an hour or more late, close to the national 8.3%, so 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 717 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 66.1% on time across 590 flights, 8 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 8 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 592 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 ORF to ORD

Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 592 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 74.5% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 581 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Where to go next

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, on-time performance data, September 2025 to August 2026. Last updated 22 October 2026; recomputed monthly. How this data is collected.

Key figures