Carrier route record
UAPIT→ORD
United Airlines · Pittsburgh to Chicago
- Flights
- 1,317
- Period
- September 2025 to August 2026
- Share of route
- 33%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for September 2025 to August 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on PIT to ORD lands a B, about a point worse than the national rate of 77.3%. About one flight in four arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That rests on 1,317 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Republic Airways, flew 1,722 at 83.0% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.3%, so there is little to separate United on PIT to ORD from the country as a whole. The variation that matters here is internal: which carrier, and what time of day.
Key figures
On time
76.1%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 1,287 completed flights
Avg delay
103 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
2.20%
National rate is 1.89%
Whole route
77.1%
Every carrier on PIT to ORD, 4,031 flights
These figures cover 1,317 flights between September 2025 and August 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 10.5% 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 PIT to ORD
United flew 1,317 of the 4,031 flights on PIT to ORD, about 33% of it. Its 76.1% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 77.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number two of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from Republic at 83.0% to American at 66.4%. 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 83.0% of the time; American Airlines manages 66.4%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 619 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republic Airways | 1,722 | 83.0% | 72 min | 1.68% | B |
| United Airlines (this page) | 1,317 | 76.1% | 103 min | 2.20% | B |
| Envoy Airthin sample | 138 | 74.8% | 97 min | 2.17% | C |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 235 | 68.4% | 109 min | 4.26% | C− |
| American Airlines | 619 | 66.4% | 120 min | 3.07% | C− |
American Airlines cancels 3.1% 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 PIT to ORD
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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 37 points, against 17 points between the best and worst carrier.
- 5am–8am366 flights87.5%
- 8am–11am111 flights79.6%
- 11am–2pm195 flights91.1%
- 2pm–5pm332 flights74.8%
- 5pm–8pm311 flights53.6%
- 8pm–5am2 flights—
Scale runs 45% to 95%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 53.6% on time, against 91.1% 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 5am–8am window is the busiest, with 366 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on PIT to ORD through the year
August is the worst month at 60.3% on time, 26 points below May, the best at 85.8%. Summer afternoon convection and peak-season schedules land on the same weeks every year, so this is a pattern you can book around rather than a run of bad luck. August was the busiest month here, with 124 flights.
Across the week, Friday is the strongest day at 81.8% on time and Monday the weakest at 70.5%, a spread of 11 points.
Arrival by arrival
How late United on PIT to ORD runs when it is late
The 307 late arrivals split 95 under half an hour, 77 between 30 and 60 minutes, and 135 an hour or more.
- 15+ min early291 flights22.6%
- Within 15 min689 flights53.5%
- 15–29 min late95 flights7.4%
- 30–59 min late77 flights6.0%
- 1–2 hours late61 flights4.7%
- 2+ hours late74 flights5.7%
Scale runs 0% to 100%.
Share of 1,287 completed flights by arrival against schedule.
29 of 228 late departures made up the time and arrived on time, 13% of them. In the other direction, 108 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 PIT to ORD
The latest arrival of the period was on 14 June 2026, 21 hours 45 minutes behind schedule; most of its delay minutes were filed as carrier-caused (crew, maintenance, fuelling, baggage). On three of the five worst days the largest share was filed as national airspace system delay.
| Date | Arrived late by | Largest filed cause |
|---|---|---|
| 14 June 2026 | 21 hours 45 minutes | Carrier |
| 9 August 2026 | 19 hours 8 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 11 June 2026 | 18 hours 7 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 27 April 2026 | 15 hours 27 minutes | National Airspace System |
| 7 December 2025 | 9 hours 12 minutes | Late-arriving aircraft |
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
National Airspace System accounts for 50% of the 32,000 delay minutes carriers reported here, and the remaining four split what is left.
- 50%National Airspace System
- 28%Late-arriving aircraft
- 17%Carrier
- 4%Extreme weather
50% 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 16,000 minutes out of 32,000, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 31,631 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 2.20% against a national 1.89%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.08%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
10.5% 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.
At 413 miles this is a short hop, and stage length matters more than it looks. A flight this short spends under two hours in the air, which leaves almost nothing to claw back a late pushback with. Delay here is decided on the ground, in the turn, which is why the 11am–2pm window matters as much as it does.
The return leg runs 74.2% on time across 1,318 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.
The sample behind these figures is 1,317 flights, enough that the headline rate is stable to within roughly a point. The hour-block and month splits divide that further, so read the thinner bars with more caution than the headline.
What to do with this
Booking United on PIT to ORD
Put together: the calendar is the biggest lever here, not the carrier or the hour. May runs 85.8% on time and August 60.3%, a swing of 26 points. If the dates move at all, move them out of August before you think about anything else. 1,287 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- PIT to ORD, every carrier
- United on ORD to PIT, the return leg
- Republic Airways on PIT to ORD83.0%
- Envoy Air on PIT to ORD74.8%
- SkyWest Airlines on PIT to ORD68.4%
- American Airlines on PIT to ORD66.4%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Pittsburgh International (PIT) delay statistics
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) delay statistics
- Same route, different airline: where the carrier you pick matters most
- How often a connection fails at the major US hubs
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.