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DelayAtlas

Carrier route record

AAPVDORD

American Airlines · Providence to Chicago

Flights
431
Period
July 2025 to June 2026
Share of route
26%
Carriers
5
B−GRADE

Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with American Airlines.

American on PVD to ORD lands a B−, 2 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 431 flights, with a median arrival 6 minutes early.

The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate American on PVD 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

79.2%

Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 418 completed flights

Avg delay

108 min

Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights

Cancelled

3.02%

National rate is 1.81%

Whole route

73.6%

Every carrier on PVD to ORD, 1,654 flights

These figures cover 431 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. Beyond the headline rate, 8.1% 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

American against every carrier on PVD to ORD

American flew 431 of the 1,654 flights on PVD to ORD, about 26% of it. Its 79.2% on time is 6 points better than the route as a whole, which runs 73.6%. Ranked by on-time rate it is first of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 79.2% to SkyWest at 69.4%. 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.

On-time performance by carrier on PVD to ORD
AirlineFlightsOn timeAvg delayCancelledGrade
American Airlines (this page)43179.2%108 min3.02%B−
Envoy Airthin sample27477.0%98 min5.84%B−
United Airlinesthin sample11975.7%42 min2.52%B
Republic Airwaysthin sample6269.5%50 min4.84%C−
SkyWest Airlines76869.4%102 min3.52%C−

Departure window

When American runs best on this route

Departure time matters more here than the choice of carrier. The gap between the best and worst window is 25 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–8am363 flights83.2%
  • 8am–11am
  • 11am–2pm15 flights
  • 2pm–5pm9 flights
  • 5pm–8pm44 flights58.1%
  • 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: 58.1% on time, against 83.2% 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 363 flights scheduled in it.

Across the year

American on PVD to ORD through the year

On-time rate by calendar monthJF87M76A71MJ83J77A80S74ON87D
Darker means more delays. Figures are on-time percentages.March best, May worst

Delays peak in May, when the on-time rate falls to 70.6%. March is the strongest month at 86.7%. Moving a flexible trip across that boundary buys 16 points. April was the busiest month here, with 54 flights.

Across the week, Sunday is the strongest day at 81.7% on time and Saturday the weakest at 75.0%. 7 points is a smaller lever than departure hour, but it is free.

On-time rate by day of the week81.4Mon76.8Tue80.3Wed81.0Thu77.8Fri75.0Sat81.7Sun
Monday: 81.4 percent on time. Tuesday: 76.8 percent on time. Wednesday: 80.3 percent on time. Thursday: 81.0 percent on time. Friday: 77.8 percent on time. Saturday: 75.0 percent on time. Sunday: 81.7 percent on time

Delay causes

Why American runs late on this route

One category carries most of the weight here. Carrier accounts for 61% of the 9,364 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.

  • Carrier
    61%
  • Late-arriving aircraft
    23%
  • National Airspace System
    14%
  • Extreme weather
    3%

The largest share of delay minutes, 61%, 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 5,694 of the 9,364 delay minutes reported here. The split is drawn from 9,364 reported delay minutes.

Cancellations run at 3.02%, 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

8.1% 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.

The 849 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 61.5% on time across 431 flights, 18 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 18 points of difference.

One caution: this is a thin sample. 431 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 American on PVD to ORD

Put together: the delay figures matter less here than the 3.02% cancellation rate. A late arrival costs you close to two hours; a cancelled flight costs you the day. Book the 5am–8am departure so there is still a schedule behind you if it goes wrong, and treat a same-day connection as optimistic. 418 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.

Related

Where to go next

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.