Flight profile · United Airlines
UA303
Kansas City (MCI) to Chicago (ORD) · scheduled 8:00 AM – 5:05 PM
How UA303 performs
1,124 operations, July 2023 – July 2026.
UA303 arrived on time 81.2% of the time, against 79.2% for all MCI → ORD flights, so this departure is 2.0 percentage points better than the route as a whole.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · 1,124 operations, July 2023 – July 2026 · If UA303 is cancelled or significantly changed, DOT’s automatic refund rule may entitle you to your money back. The refund checker walks through eligibility.
Where UA303 is right now
A live reading, only if you ask for it. It is not part of the reliability record above.
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Against the rest of the route
| Flight or route | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UA303 | 81.2% | 1.33% | -4 min | 6.7% | 1,124 |
| United Airlines on MCI → ORD | 81.0% | 1.56% | -4 min | 7.2% | 4,292 |
| All MCI → ORD flights | 79.2% | 2.02% | -6 min | 8.6% | 10,959 |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
Why UA303 runs late
Where US DOT attributed the delay minutes on this flight.
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for UA303 on MCI → ORD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Does a late aircraft delay this flight?
How often the plane that flies UA303 comes in late, and what that does to the departure.
When the aircraft came in 15 or more minutes late, UA303 pushed back an average of 28 minutes late; when it came in on time or early, an average of 1 minute late.
Each departure is matched to the flight the same aircraft flew into MCI just before it, using the tail number in the DOT file, 1,096 of 1,109 departures in all. A departure is left out when that flight is unknown, was cancelled or diverted, or the aircraft had sat for more than 12 hours. A flight the airline cancelled never left and is not in the count, and one flown by a substitute aircraft is matched to the aircraft that flew it, not to the one first planned.
Against the network at the same turn length
| Share of departures | Inbound landed 15+ late | Left 15+ late after a late inbound | Left 15+ late after an on-time inbound |
|---|---|---|---|
| UA303 | 27% | 41% | 7% |
| Network, same turn | 17% | 68% | 9% |
The schedule leaves a normal turn: enough time to clean and board if the aircraft is on time, little to spare if it is not.
The network row is every flight with a scheduled turn of 60 to 89 minutes. How often UA303’s aircraft landed 15 or more minutes late is higher than the network’s and, once the aircraft was late, how often UA303 left 15 or more minutes late is lower than the network’s.
More: Which Flight Numbers Pay for a Late Aircraft lists the flight numbers that pass a late aircraft on.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
From pushback to gate
When it leaves MCI late, does that still matter by the time it reaches ORD?
On arrival at ORD, UA303 spends 17.0 min taxiing from touchdown to the gate — ground time a connecting passenger sits through before they can even leave the aircraft, on top of however late the flight itself ran. That is about what any arrival at ORD spends on the ground before reaching the gate.
Departure delay is averaged over every pushback and arrival delay over every completed arrival, so the two counts differ by the flights that never reached ORD. Taxi-out is gate to wheels up and sits inside the scheduled block rather than on top of it; the comparison is 5,814 departures from MCI scheduled in the clock hour UA303 most often leaves in. Taxi-in is landing to gate, compared against every arrival FlyerIntel has on file at ORD (952,666 flights), not just UA303’s own. More on taxi time.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026
The hour it leaves MCI
Part of any flight’s record belongs to the clock rather than to the flight. UA303 has one departure time, so this is what that time is worth.
On-time arrival rate. 5,814 departures from MCI are scheduled in the 8 AM–9 AM hour over the period, against 152,682 across the whole day.
UA303 is scheduled out of MCI at 8:00 AM, in the 8 AM–9 AM bank. Departures from MCI in that hour arrive on time 88.6% of the time against 81.0% across the airport’s whole day — the slot alone is worth 7.5 points better before anything about this particular flight is considered.
The two airport figures cover every departure from MCI to every destination, so they describe the slot rather than this journey — the like-for-like comparison against the route is above. Hours are scheduled local, and a number whose schedule moved between banks inside the period has no single hour and is not described here at all. Why the hour matters.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Hours below 120 departures are not scored.
By day of week
Does UA303 run worse on particular days?
Monday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 7.7 percentage points.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Days with fewer than 120 operations are not scored.
Other routes UA303 has flown
A flight number is a slot in a schedule, and carriers reassign it. These are the other city pairs this number served in the analysis period.
| Route | Operated | Flights | On time |
|---|---|---|---|
| ORD→BWI Chicago to Baltimore | May 21, 2026 – June 24, 2026 | 35 | — |
| ORD→MIA Chicago to Miami | March 5–28, 2026 | 24 | — |
| ORD→IAH Chicago to Houston | January 6, 2026 – February 11, 2026 | 37 | — |
| ORD→SLC Chicago to Salt Lake City | September 25, 2025 – October 25, 2025 | 31 | — |
| DEN→DSM Denver to Des Moines | August 17, 2025 | 1 | — |
| ORD→EWR Chicago to Newark | May 22, 2025 – June 25, 2025 | 35 | — |
| ORD→GSP Chicago to Greenville/Greer/Spartanburg | March 30–31, 2025 | 2 | — |
| ORD→LGA Chicago to New York | September 5, 2023 – December 2, 2024 | 55 | — |
| LGA→DEN New York to Denver | October 27, 2024 – December 2, 2024 | 31 | — |
| ORD→SAN Chicago to San Diego | October 1–26, 2024 | 26 | — |
| ORD→LAS Chicago to Las Vegas | September 1–25, 2024 | 25 | — |
| ORD→ALB Chicago to Albany | August 1–16, 2024 | 12 | — |
| ORD→RNO Chicago to Reno | June 27–30, 2024 | 4 | — |
| ORD→GRR Chicago to Grand Rapids | March 1–6, 2024 | 6 | — |
| ORD→FAT Chicago to Fresno | December 21–30, 2023 | 8 | — |
| DEN→ICT Denver to Wichita | November 23, 2023 | 1 | — |
| ORD→RSW Chicago to Fort Myers | October 1–28, 2023 | 28 | — |
Because the same number has served different journeys, the statistics above describe only the route UA303 currently operates. Blending them would produce an average of two different flights.
When it goes wrong
The average describes a usual day. This is the day that ruins a connection.
36 min late
against a median of 4 min early
Percentiles over 1,124 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,124 records of UA303 operating MCI → ORD, published by the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics. A flight counts as delayed when it arrives 15 or more minutes after schedule. Cancelled and diverted flights are excluded from the on-time rate and reported separately. Flight numbers are resolved as carrier plus number plus route, because the same number serves different routes over time.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: Most and Least Reliable Flight Numbers · The Delay You Inherit · Making Up Time in the Air
Analysis last recomputed