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Airport · ORD · Chicago, Illinois

Chicago, IL

According to PlainFlights' airport traffic ranking (BTS On-Time Performance total flights), Chicago, IL (ORD) ranks #4 of 382 tracked US airports by total flights (most flights = #1). Chicago, IL posts bottom-quartile on-time performance among the 382 tracked U.S. airports, as one of the busiest U.S. airports.

Data updated 2026-06-13

81%
On-time
Top 77%
on-time, US airports
82 min
Delay when late
1.16%
Cancelled
#4 of 382
Corpus placement
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ORD on-time rate vs. the national average

Ahead of the U.S. average across all 382 tracked airports.

0%100%U.S. average79%81%

Delay Cause Breakdown

Top delay cause: Late Aircraft. Total delay minutes: 22,681,763.

Late Aircraft 39.2% (8,894,538 min)
Carrier 33.6% (7,611,798 min)
NAS (National Aviation System) 19.5% (4,412,102 min)
Weather 7.7% (1,743,310 min)
Security 0.1% (20,015 min)

ORD - seasonal on-time pattern

Best: March (92.2%) · worst: July (86.6%)

86%88%90%92%94% JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 89%

ORD - on-time rate by year

2020–2025, year-over-year trend.

85%90%95%100% 202020212022202320242025 95.4% 87.7% ▼ -8.1%

ORD - taxi-out and taxi-in (monthly)

Average taxi-out 24.8 min · taxi-in 17.4 min over the last 24 reported months (U.S. airport mean taxi-out ≈ 16.4 min).

20 min25 min30 min35 min Jan 24Dec 25 25 min 30.7 min ▲ +22.8%

ORD's average taxi-out (24.8 min) runs longer than the recent U.S. airport mean (~16.4 min). The heaviest month in this window is December 2025 at 30.7 min; the lightest is February 2024 at 21.1 min.

Cancellation & Diversion Analysis

Flight disruption statistics for Chicago, IL.

Cancellation Rate

1.16%

36,132 of 3,114,086 flights

Diversion Rate

0.13%

3,912 of 3,114,086 flights

Delay Rate

19.0%

592,111 of 3,114,086 flights

Top Routes from ORD

Busiest routes to and from Chicago, IL.

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Route Flights On-Time Distance
ORD (Chicago) → LGA (New York) 56,539 78.2% 733 mi
LGA (New York) → ORD (Chicago) 56,521 80.8% 733 mi
ORD (Chicago) → LAX (Los Angeles) 37,020 79.8% 1,744 mi
LAX (Los Angeles) → ORD (Chicago) 36,987 84.3% 1,744 mi
ORD (Chicago) → DEN (Denver) 35,971 79.3% 888 mi
DEN (Denver) → ORD (Chicago) 35,925 76.8% 888 mi
BOS (Boston) → ORD (Chicago) 35,774 82.1% 867 mi
ORD (Chicago) → BOS (Boston) 35,759 78.5% 867 mi
ORD (Chicago) → DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) 34,728 77.7% 802 mi
DFW (Dallas/Fort Worth) → ORD (Chicago) 34,708 78.7% 802 mi
ATL (Atlanta) → ORD (Chicago) 34,117 79.6% 606 mi
ORD (Chicago) → ATL (Atlanta) 34,113 79.8% 606 mi
ORD (Chicago) → DCA (Washington) 33,643 79% 612 mi
DCA (Washington) → ORD (Chicago) 33,634 83.8% 612 mi
MSP (Minneapolis) → ORD (Chicago) 31,635 80.7% 334 mi
ORD (Chicago) → MSP (Minneapolis) 31,628 79.4% 334 mi
ORD (Chicago) → PHX (Phoenix) 31,113 80.3% 1,440 mi
PHX (Phoenix) → ORD (Chicago) 31,100 83% 1,440 mi
EWR (Newark) → ORD (Chicago) 29,551 77.1% 719 mi
ORD (Chicago) → EWR (Newark) 29,547 74.4% 719 mi

Nationwide peers by on-time rate & flight volume

Two PlainFlights-derived comparison paths for Chicago, IL, both outside Illinois so the neighborhoods are not same-state geography. Axes stay disjoint: volume peers exclude the on-time peer set. Same-state compare stays below.

Similar on-time rate

Nearest out-of-state BTS on-time rate (this airport: 81%).

San Francisco, CA

San Francisco, CA

81% on-time 1,466,784 flights

Fort Myers, FL

Fort Myers, FL

80.9% on-time 420,518 flights

Savannah, GA

Savannah, GA

80.9% on-time 204,730 flights

Albany, NY

Albany, NY

80.9% on-time 129,222 flights

Similar flight volume

Nearest out-of-state total flights (this airport: 3,114,086).

Denver, CO

Denver, CO

3,293,040 flights 78.9% on-time

Dallas/Fort Worth, TX

Dallas/Fort Worth, TX

3,395,134 flights 78.5% on-time

Atlanta, GA

Atlanta, GA

3,758,561 flights 83.7% on-time

Charlotte, NC

Charlotte, NC

2,345,248 flights 82% on-time

Other Airports in Illinois

Compare performance with other Illinois airports.

MDW 78.4%

Chicago, IL

Chicago · 880,912 flights
MLI 83.4%

Moline, IL

Moline · 45,407 flights
PIA 80.7%

Peoria, IL

Peoria · 44,104 flights
BMI 85.2%

Bloomington/Normal, IL

Bloomington/Normal · 25,097 flights
CMI 84.8%

Champaign/Urbana, IL

Champaign/Urbana · 17,865 flights
BLV 76.4%

Belleville, IL

Belleville · 14,072 flights
RFD 78.9%

Rockford, IL

Rockford · 9,512 flights
DEC 84.5%

Decatur, IL

Decatur · 9,084 flights

ORD delay-share reading

The standout signal at Chicago, IL is traffic scale: 3,114,086 BTS flights (2020–2025) place it #4 of 382 by book size. That busy-book footprint sits beside a 81% on-time rate (2 pts above the 79% national flight-weighted average), 592,111 delayed departures, and 36,132 cancellations (1.16% of the book).

Delay minutes concentrate in Late Aircraft (39.2% late-aircraft, 33.6% carrier, 19.5% NAS, 7.7% weather, 0.1% security). As a busy airport, that mix matters more for connection planning than for a thin schedule.

On the multi-year calendar, ORD is strongest in March (92.2% on-time) and weakest in July (86.6%), a 5.6-point swing. Volume peaks in August (~48,067 flights/month). The busiest connecting route is to LGA (New York) at 78.2% on-time. Field definitions: on-time performance explained.

Statewide aggregates for Illinois: Illinois flight data.

Data Source: Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), On-Time Performance Data (2020–2025). Statistics reflect cumulative performance across all available reporting periods. On-time rates exclude cancelled and diverted flights.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Using ORD's data

ORD's on-time book sits in the slower half of the BTS set; check the delay mix and the worst month before treating the headline as typical.

  • Check the busiest route from ORD before you book a connection. See top routes
  • Travel in March rather than July if your dates are flexible. Seasonal patterns
  • Build extra connection buffer when taxi-out spikes. December 2025 averaged 30.7 min. Taxi times

On-time rate reflects the BTS historical average across all reporting carriers at this airport, not any single flight or airline.

Data sourced from U.S. Department of Transportation Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) On-Time Performance data. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainFlights

Source: U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS) Airline on-time performance and operational reliability · 2025

Every figure on PlainFlights is rendered directly from BTS On-Time Performance data, no number is typed in by an editor. Airport figures are computed directly from BTS On-Time Performance data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.