Saginaw/Bay City/Midland to Chicago

What the Data Says About MBS to ORD

The Saginaw/Bay City/Midland to Chicago corridor (MBS → ORD) covers roughly 222 miles and is served by 1 carrier, based on Bureau of Transportation Statistics reporting. Across 3,380 flights in the dataset, this route posts a 77.2% on-time rate with an average delay of 95.7 minutes when flights run late. Over the most recent 24 months of BTS data, 2,127 flights were recorded on this pairing — 48 cancelled (2.3%) and 6 diverted (0.3%). Those baseline metrics tell you what to expect before you book.

Having 1 carrier on the route matters: more carriers generally means more daily schedule options, competitive pricing, and redundancy when flights are cancelled. With 3,380 total flights analyzed, the 77.2% on-time figure is statistically meaningful rather than a small-sample fluke. The 95.7-minute average delay applies only to flights that actually ran late, so it is not the average wait across all departures — the majority of flights on this route depart on time under the BTS definition of a delay (15+ minutes past schedule).

Looking at recent months, Jun 2024 posted the best performance on this corridor at 87% on-time, while Jan 2024 came in at 57% on-time — a 29-point gap between best and worst recent month. For travelers evaluating the MBS to ORD route, the combination of a 77.2% on-time rate, 95.7-minute average delay, 2.3% recent cancellation rate, and 1 available carrier is the concrete summary of what BTS data shows about reliability on this pairing.