Carrier route record
UAPSP→ORD
United Airlines · Palm Springs to Chicago
- Flights
- 336
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 43%
- Carriers
- 2
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on PSP to ORD lands a B, 3 points better than the national rate of 77.6%. About one flight in five arrives 15 minutes late or worse, and those flights are late by close to two hours on average. That is a workable record, not a spotless one. That rests on 336 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 United on PSP 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
80.7%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 326 completed flights
Avg delay
106 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.79%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
75.1%
Every carrier on PSP to ORD, 787 flights
These figures cover 336 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.9% of arrivals land a full hour or more behind schedule. That is the number that wrecks a connection, and it is not visible in an on-time percentage alone.
Carrier by carrier
United against every carrier on PSP to ORD
United flew 336 of the 787 flights on PSP to ORD, about 43% of it. Its 80.7% on time is 6 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 75.1%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of two carriers on the route, where the range runs from United at 80.7% to American at 70.9%.
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 Airlines (this page)thin sample | 336 | 80.7% | 106 min | 1.79% | B |
| American Airlines | 451 | 70.9% | 107 min | 3.10% | C− |
Departure window
When United runs best on this route
Departure time is the single lever a traveller controls, and it moves the odds more than most people expect. Each bar below is the on-time rate for flights scheduled to leave inside that window, across 336 flights.
- 5am–8am77 flights82.4%
- 8am–11am—
- 11am–2pm237 flights80.7%
- 2pm–5pm—
- 5pm–8pm—
- 8pm–5am22 flights—
Scale runs 70% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5am–8am window is the strongest at 82.4% on time. The full set of windows spans 2 points.
Across the year
United on PSP to ORD through the year
- Jul–Sep 20256 flights—
- Oct–Dec 2025105 flights82.7%
- Jan–Mar 2026146 flights77.9%
- Apr–Jun 202679 flights81.8%
Scale runs 70% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
Monthly volumes are too low here to break the year into twelve reliable readings. What the twelve-month total says is 80.7% on time across 336 flights.
Quarter by quarter United on PSP to ORD held fairly steady: 82.7% in Oct–Dec 2025, 77.9% in Jan–Mar 2026 and 81.8% in Apr–Jun 2026. A spread of 5 points is about what a sample of this size moves on its own, so the annual figure is a fair summary.
Across the week, Thursday is the strongest day at 88.6% on time and Saturday the weakest at 74.0%. 15 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.
Delay causes
Why United runs late on this route
One category carries most of the weight here. National Airspace System accounts for 47% of the 6,656 delay minutes carriers reported, and the remaining four split what is left. The split is by minutes rather than by flights, so a few very long delays count for as much as many short ones.
- 47%National Airspace System
- 35%Carrier
- 18%Late-arriving aircraft
The largest share of delay minutes, 35%, falls under carrier control: crew scheduling, maintenance, fuelling, baggage. Unlike weather, that is a management outcome, and it is the category where the gap between two carriers on the same schedule is genuinely earned. It accounts for 2,331 of the 6,656 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 6,656 reported delay minutes.
47% 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 3,155 minutes out of 6,656, against a national NAS share of 21%.
Cancellations sit at 1.79% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 1.19%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
8.9% 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 close to two hours, which a normal layover absorbs.
At 1,651 miles this is transcontinental flying, and long routes get a quiet structural advantage. Scheduled block time on a flight this length carries more padding in absolute minutes, so a twenty-minute late departure often still becomes an on-time arrival. Read the on-time rate here as slightly flattering next to a short-haul route with the same operational quality.
The return leg is a different operation and performs like one: it runs 76.4% on time across 335 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. 336 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 PSP to ORD
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 336 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 80.7% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 326 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- PSP to ORD, every carrier
- United on ORD to PSP, the return leg
- American Airlines on PSP to ORD70.9%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) delay statistics
- Connecting flights: how much buffer the data says you need
- Late aircraft, weather, or the airline: what actually causes US flight delays
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.