OnTimeStats

Historical on-time performance

Des Moines to Chicago

299 miData through May 2026Source: US DOT · BTS

Flights on DSM–ORD arrive on time 69% of the time over the last 12 months.

On-time rate69%arrived within 15 min
p90 delay70 min1 in 10 flights is worse (tail risk)
Cancelled3.9%of scheduled flights

based on 3,299 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.

  • American Airlines
    On-time79%
    Medianon time
    p9035 min
    Cancel5.8%
    Flights275
  • Envoy Air
    On-time75%
    Medianon time
    p9045 min
    Cancel2.2%
    Flights406
  • United Airlines
    On-time72%
    Medianon time
    p9045 min
    Cancel1.7%
    Flights951
  • Republic Airways
    On-time71%
    Medianon time
    p9065 min
    Cancel4.4%
    Flights497
  • SkyWest Airlines
    On-time63%
    Medianon time
    p90100 min
    Cancel5.6%
    Flights1,170

Why flights run late

Delay causes

  • Airline33%
  • Weather13%
  • Air traffic (NAS)24%
  • Late aircraft30%
  • Security0%

Most delay minutes here are attributed to Airline.

When flights don't go

Why flights were cancelled

  • Airline5%
  • Weather78%
  • Air traffic (NAS)16%
  • Security0%

Most cancellations here are attributed to Weather. Shares are among 128 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 DSM → 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 — 82% on time.

  • Mornings82% on time · p90 25 min · 2,697 flights
  • Middays77% on time · p90 40 min · 1,811 flights
  • Afternoons75% on time · p90 45 min · 1,424 flights
  • Evenings62% on time · p90 75 min · 1,383 flights

Best day of week

On-time rates are fairly even by day on this route — ranging from 72% to 78% on time.

  • Tuesdays78% on time · p90 45 min · 1,062 flights
  • Thursdays78% on time · p90 40 min · 1,085 flights
  • Saturdays78% on time · p90 40 min · 945 flights
  • Wednesdays77% on time · p90 45 min · 1,054 flights
  • Mondays75% on time · p90 45 min · 1,098 flights
  • Sundays74% on time · p90 50 min · 1,038 flights
  • Fridays72% on time · p90 50 min · 1,096 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.