OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Washington to Chicago

612 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DCA–ORD arrive on time 71% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate71%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay60 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled3.4%of scheduled flights

based on 6,716 flights over the last 12 months. On-time means arriving within 15 minutes (BTS standard).

By airline

How each carrier compares

Too close to call — no single carrier is clearly more on-time here.

  • Envoy Air
    On-time74%
    Medianon time
    p9015 min
    Cancel12.9%
    Flights31
  • American Airlines
    On-time72%
    Medianon time
    p9065 min
    Cancel4.0%
    Flights2,322
  • United Airlines
    On-time71%
    Medianon time
    p9060 min
    Cancel2.1%
    Flights3,385
  • Republic Airways
    On-time70%
    Medianon time
    p9055 min
    Cancel5.8%
    Flights978

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline16%
  • Weather9%
  • Air traffic (NAS)34%
  • Late aircraft42%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Late aircraft.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline14%
  • Weather73%
  • Air traffic (NAS)13%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 226 cancellations with a reported cause (BTS reports causes from June 2003).

Over time

On-time trend

By season

On-time rate by month

When to fly

Best time to fly DCA → ORD

All airlines · rolling 36 months (2023-06 .. 2026-05).

Best time of day

Mornings are the most reliable time of day to fly this route — 86% on time.

  • Mornings86% on time · p90 15 min · 6,063 flights
  • Middays85% on time · p90 25 min · 4,790 flights
  • Afternoons73% on time · p90 70 min · 3,175 flights
  • Overnights69% on time · p90 70 min · 1,301 flights
  • Evenings61% on time · p90 90 min · 4,068 flights

Best day of week

Saturdays are the most reliable day to fly this route — 81% on time.

  • Saturdays81% on time · p90 40 min · 2,095 flights
  • Tuesdays79% on time · p90 40 min · 2,887 flights
  • Mondays78% on time · p90 45 min · 2,893 flights
  • Thursdays77% on time · p90 45 min · 2,877 flights
  • Sundays77% on time · p90 50 min · 2,873 flights
  • Wednesdays76% on time · p90 45 min · 2,879 flights
  • Fridays74% on time · p90 55 min · 2,893 flights

Keep exploring

Related pages

Methodology

A flight is on time when it arrives within 15 minutes of schedule — the US DOT / BTS standard. Median and p90(the “1-in-10 bad day”) are read from the full arrival-delay distribution, never averaged across periods.

Figures cover a carrier’s own BTS-coded flights. Cells below ~200 flights are flagged as limited data. All numbers are pre-computed from public BTS On-Time Performance data.