Carrier route record
UASYR→ORD
United Airlines · Syracuse to Chicago
- Flights
- 405
- Period
- July 2025 to June 2026
- Share of route
- 19%
- Carriers
- 5
Historical statistics for July 2025 to June 2026, not live status. For today’s flights, check with United Airlines.
United on SYR to ORD 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 about an hour behind schedule. That rests on 405 flights. The strongest carrier on the route with a full sample, Envoy Air, flew 686 at 79.1% on time.
The US average over the same twelve months is 77.6%, so there is little to separate United on SYR 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
75.3%
Arrivals under 15 minutes late, of 396 completed flights
Avg delay
60 min
Across delayed arrivals only, not all flights
Cancelled
1.73%
National rate is 1.81%
Whole route
74.0%
Every carrier on SYR to ORD, 2,187 flights
These figures cover 405 flights between July 2025 and June 2026. On-time means an arrival less than 15 minutes after the scheduled gate time, the same threshold the Department of Transportation uses in its own reports. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and counted separately, which is why the cancellation column matters on its own.
Carrier by carrier
United against every carrier on SYR to ORD
United flew 405 of the 2,187 flights on SYR to ORD, about 19% of it. Its 75.3% on time is about level with the route as a whole at 74.0%. Ranked by on-time rate it is number three of five carriers on the route, where the range runs from American at 79.2% to SkyWest at 59.1%. Two of those carriers flew fewer than 365 flights here, so treat their positions as rough.
The choice of carrier is not cosmetic here. Envoy Air arrives on time 79.1% of the time; Republic Airways manages 72.7%. Sample sizes sit next to every figure, because a two-point gap across 752 flights means less than a ten-point one.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Avg delay | Cancelled | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American Airlinesthin sample | 103 | 79.2% | 103 min | 1.94% | B |
| Envoy Air | 686 | 79.1% | 82 min | 2.62% | B |
| United Airlines (this page) | 405 | 75.3% | 60 min | 1.73% | B |
| Republic Airways | 752 | 72.7% | 79 min | 3.86% | C− |
| SkyWest Airlinesthin sample | 241 | 59.1% | 76 min | 4.15% | D− |
Republic Airways cancels 3.9% 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.
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 32 points, against 6 points between the best and worst carrier. Each bar is the on-time rate for flights scheduled inside that window.
- 5am–8am262 flights86.0%
- 8am–11am1 flights—
- 11am–2pm—
- 2pm–5pm3 flights—
- 5pm–8pm137 flights53.7%
- 8pm–5am2 flights—
Scale runs 45% to 90%. Rows with fewer than 30 flights show a dash.
The 5pm–8pm window is where this operation falls apart: 53.7% on time, against 86.0% 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 262 flights scheduled in it.
Across the year
United on SYR to ORD through the year
- Jul–Sep 2025162 flights76.1%
- Oct–Dec 2025101 flights66.3%
- Jan–Mar 20267 flights—
- Apr–Jun 2026135 flights81.8%
Scale runs 60% to 85%. 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 75.3% on time across 405 flights.
United on SYR to ORD did not run the same all year. Its best quarter was Apr–Jun 2026 at 81.8% on time and its weakest Oct–Dec 2025 at 66.3%, a swing of 16 points on roughly 135 flights a quarter. The twelve-month rate averages over that, so if you are flying in a weak quarter the quarter's own figure is the better guide.
Across the week, Saturday is the strongest day at 83.6% on time and Monday the weakest at 68.3%. 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 52% of the 5,832 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.
- 52%National Airspace System
- 24%Carrier
- 17%Late-arriving aircraft
- 7%Extreme weather
52% 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 3,036 minutes out of 5,832, against a national NAS share of 21%. The split is drawn from 5,832 reported delay minutes.
Cancellations sit at 1.73% against a national 1.81%, which is ordinary. Diversions add another 0.49%.
Connections and stage length
What a delay here costs
6.8% 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 about an hour, which a normal layover absorbs.
The 607 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 71.2% on time across 405 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. 405 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 SYR to ORD
Put together: treat all of this as provisional. 405 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 75.3% headline is the most reliable number on the page; the hour and month splits below it are built on a few dozen flights each. 396 completed flights over 12 months sit behind that.
Related
Where to go next
- SYR to ORD, every carrier
- United on ORD to SYR, the return leg
- American Airlines on SYR to ORD79.2%
- Envoy Air on SYR to ORD79.1%
- Republic Airways on SYR to ORD72.7%
- SkyWest Airlines on SYR to ORD59.1%
- United Airlines network-wide record
- Chicago O'Hare International (ORD) delay statistics
- The best time of day to fly, according to 7.04 million flight records
- How to read this site: grades, sample sizes, and honest caveats
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.