Metro area · Chicago
Which Chicago airport should you fly from?
ORD and MDW compared on 1,233,211 departures, July 2023 – August 2026: how often flights arrive on time, how often they are cancelled, how long they taxi, and how all of it changes with the time of day. Add a destination to compare the routes each airport flies there.
Enter an airport code. You get the route from each of ORD, MDW to it, side by side. The suggestions are places at least two of these airports fly to.
Flying to Madison (MSN)
Nonstop flights from this metro area to Dane County Regional Truax Field.
MDW has no flights to MSN in the data.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026 · Each route is measured over its own period. Departures from ORD only.
What stands out in the Chicago area
Each line is worked out from the figures below. A lead is claimed only where it is larger than chance.
- On-time arrivalMDW had the best on-time arrival rate, 76.2%, ahead of ORD at 74.2%. Best to worst is 2.0 points.
- CancellationsORD cancelled 1.86% of its flights, 1.5 times the rate at MDW (1.22%).
- Taxi timeTaxi-out averages 25.7 min at ORD and 14.4 min at MDW, 11.2 minutes more between pushback and wheels-up. Coming in, taxi time runs from 5.1 min at MDW to 18.0 min at ORD.
- Time of dayThe best airport depends on when you leave: clearly ahead MDW at 5–9 AM, 9 AM–12 PM, 12–3 PM, 3–6 PM, and 6–9 PM and ORD at 9 PM–5 AM. The gap is widest for departures at 9 PM–5 AM (ORD 65.8% against MDW 58.4%) and narrowest at 6–9 PM (0.7 points).
- Hour by hourThe biggest swing through the day is at MDW: 5 AM–6 AM reached 93.8% on time (8,694 flights) and 10 PM–11 PM fell to 57.4% (6,187), 36.4 points apart. At both airports the worst hour falls in the 9 PM–5 AM window.
- AirlinesSouthwest Airlines flies 92% of departures from MDW, more than any other carrier at any airport here. The largest carrier at each: Southwest Airlines at MDW (92%) and United Airlines at ORD (30%). Carriers with 500 or more departures at only one of them: United Airlines, American Airlines, and Envoy Air at ORD and Allegiant Air at MDW.
- Destinations156 destinations outside the metro area get 750 or more flights from these airports; 62 of them from at least two and 62 from every airport. ORD alone serves 89 destinations (34% of its departures), including Newark (EWR), Houston (IAH), and Milwaukee (MKE).
- Same destinationsOn the 62 destinations every airport serves, on-time arrival runs from 74.9% at ORD to 76.3% at MDW: 1.4 points, narrower than the 2.0 points over all their flights, so part of the overall gap comes from where each airport flies; MDW leads clearly.
ORD and MDW side by side
Every flight that left each airport, July 2023 – August 2026. The same measures as the compare tool, so a figure here is the figure there.
MDW is clearly ahead on 3 of 4 rates, ORD on 1.
A check mark and green mark the best figure in a row (higher for on-time rates, lower for delays and cancellations) when it is clearly better than the other’s: a two-proportion test on each airport’s flight count, at about 95% confidence. Otherwise the row says “too close to call”. Average and median delay carry no sample-error estimate here, so they are marked by the printed figure alone.
Share of the metro is each airport’s part of the 1,233,211 departures at these 2 airports. Taxi-out is pushback to wheels-up on departure and taxi-in is touchdown to gate on arrival, averaged over all flights. The score is the FlyerIntel Reliability Score, 0 to 100.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026 · Departing flights only.
By departure time
On-time arrival for flights leaving in each part of the day, at each airport.
| Leaving | ORD | MDW | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5–9 AM | 84.4%196,165 flights | 89.1% (best)53,222 flights | 4.7 pts |
| 9 AM–12 PM | 78.7%190,492 flights | 82.9% (best)47,016 flights | 4.2 pts |
| 12–3 PM | 75.4%181,079 flights | 77.2% (best)44,128 flights | 1.8 pts |
| 3–6 PM | 68.4%150,512 flights | 69.3% (best)36,281 flights | 0.9 pts |
| 6–9 PM | 65.7%214,343 flights | 66.4% (best)47,266 flights | 0.7 pts |
| 9 PM–5 AM | 65.8% (best)53,398 flights | 58.4%19,309 flights | 7.4 pts |
A window needs at least 120 flights at an airport to be scored. The check mark uses the same test as the table above. Gap is best minus worst among the scored airports.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026 · Windows are the scheduled local departure time at each airport.
Best and worst hour
On-time arrival by scheduled departure hour, for the hours with enough flights to score.
| Airport | Best hour | Worst hour | Swing |
|---|---|---|---|
| ORD20 hours scored | 5 AM–6 AM88.7% · 9,851 flights | 10 PM–11 PM62.0% · 12,459 flights | 26.7 pts |
| MDW18 hours scored | 5 AM–6 AM93.8% · 8,694 flights | 10 PM–11 PM57.4% · 6,187 flights | 36.4 pts |
ORD
- 12 AM: 72.1% on time from 493 flights
- 1 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 88.7% on time from 9,851 flights
- 6 AM: 87.3% on time from 30,726 flights
- 7 AM: 86.5% on time from 69,287 flights
- 8 AM: 81.2% on time from 86,301 flights
- 9 AM: 80.1% on time from 70,429 flights
- 10 AM: 78.8% on time from 74,944 flights
- 11 AM: 76.4% on time from 45,119 flights
- 12 PM: 76.9% on time from 46,973 flights
- 1 PM: 76.2% on time from 65,990 flights
- 2 PM: 73.6% on time from 68,116 flights
- 3 PM: 70.8% on time from 51,725 flights
- 4 PM: 67.8% on time from 51,051 flights
- 5 PM: 66.4% on time from 47,736 flights
- 6 PM: 66.7% on time from 83,175 flights
- 7 PM: 65.6% on time from 63,602 flights
- 8 PM: 64.5% on time from 67,566 flights
- 9 PM: 66.7% on time from 38,832 flights
- 10 PM: 62.0% on time from 12,459 flights
- 11 PM: 69.4% on time from 1,614 flights
MDW
- 12 AM to 4 AM: too few flights to score
- 5 AM: 93.8% on time from 8,694 flights
- 6 AM: 91.1% on time from 11,078 flights
- 7 AM: 87.3% on time from 13,991 flights
- 8 AM: 87.0% on time from 19,459 flights
- 9 AM: 85.2% on time from 19,836 flights
- 10 AM: 82.1% on time from 15,861 flights
- 11 AM: 79.8% on time from 11,319 flights
- 12 PM: 80.0% on time from 14,143 flights
- 1 PM: 78.8% on time from 16,486 flights
- 2 PM: 72.3% on time from 13,499 flights
- 3 PM: 71.2% on time from 11,790 flights
- 4 PM: 69.2% on time from 10,514 flights
- 5 PM: 67.8% on time from 13,977 flights
- 6 PM: 67.3% on time from 16,930 flights
- 7 PM: 66.6% on time from 14,020 flights
- 8 PM: 65.2% on time from 16,316 flights
- 9 PM: 58.9% on time from 13,059 flights
- 10 PM: 57.4% on time from 6,187 flights
- 11 PM: too few flights to score
Each chart has its own scale, so read the numbers in the table, not the bar heights, when comparing airports. The best and worst of 24 hours are the two extremes, so a small airport’s best hour is partly luck; the flight count is beside each. A swing under 3 points, or one the two hours’ flight counts cannot separate from chance, is marked as within noise.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026 · Hours are the scheduled local departure hour. An hour needs at least 120 flights to be scored.
Where each airport is strongest
Where it is clearly better than every other airport here, where it flies, and who flies there.
ORD Chicago
Clearly best on departure on-time. Clearly ahead for departures at 9 PM–5 AM.
Busiest destinations from ORD
| To | A day | Share |
|---|---|---|
| LGA New York | 30.2 | 3.5% |
| BOS Boston | 19.6 | 2.3% |
| LAX Los Angeles | 18.9 | 2.2% |
| DFW Dallas–Fort Worth | 18.3 | 2.1% |
| DCA Washington | 18.0 | 2.1% |
| DEN Denver | 17.3 | 2.0% |
151 destinations with 750 or more flights carry 99% of its departures. 89 of them are served by no other airport here (34% of departures), the largest Newark (EWR), Houston (IAH), and Milwaukee (MKE).
Largest airlines at ORD
| Airline | Share | On time |
|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 30% | 76.3% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 21% | 70.8% |
| American Airlines | 18% | 70.5% |
| Envoy Air | 13% | 76.4% |
| Republic Airways | 7.7% | 80.7% |
With 500 or more departures only here: United Airlines, American Airlines, Envoy Air, and Republic Airways.
MDW Chicago
Clearly best on on-time arrival, cancellations, and severe delays. Clearly ahead for departures at 5–9 AM, 9 AM–12 PM, 12–3 PM, 3–6 PM, and 6–9 PM.
Busiest destinations from MDW
| To | A day | Share |
|---|---|---|
| ATL Atlanta | 10.1 | 4.7% |
| PHX Phoenix | 8.1 | 3.8% |
| DEN Denver | 8.0 | 3.8% |
| MCO Orlando | 7.7 | 3.6% |
| LAS Las Vegas | 7.7 | 3.6% |
| MSP Minneapolis | 7.5 | 3.5% |
67 destinations with 750 or more flights carry 97% of its departures. 5 of them are served by no other airport here (4% of departures), the largest Houston (HOU), Oakland (OAK), and Long Beach (LGB).
Largest airlines at MDW
| Airline | Share | On time |
|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 92% | 76.0% |
| Frontier Airlines | 3.8% | 71.3% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 2.1% | 81.3% |
| Delta Air Lines | 1.9% | 86.0% |
| Allegiant Air | 0.5% | 74.7% |
Southwest Airlines flies 92% of departures, over the 50% that makes an airport that carrier’s. With 500 or more departures only here: Allegiant Air.
Airlines are the operating carrier, so a regional airline flying for a larger one is listed under its own name. Only airlines with at least 500 departures at an airport are listed there.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026
Holding the destination or the airline still
Two ways to take one reason for a gap out of the comparison.
Destinations every airport serves
62 places get 750 or more flights from each of ORD and MDW. Counting only flights to those places (65% of ORD’s and 93% of MDW’s departures):
| Measure | ORD | MDW |
|---|---|---|
| On-time arrival | 74.9% | 76.3% (best) |
| Cancellation rate | 1.67% | 1.24% (best) |
| Severe delay (60+ min) | 9.7% | 6.9% (best) |
| Flights | 642,749 | 228,756 |
The shared places: Albuquerque (ABQ), Albany (ALB), Atlanta (ATL), Austin (AUS), Hartford (BDL), Birmingham (BHM), Nashville (BNA), Boston (BOS), Buffalo (BUF), Baltimore (BWI), Charleston (CHS), Cleveland (CLE), Charlotte (CLT), Columbus (CMH), and 48 more.
The same airline at different airports
Where one airline flies from several of these airports, its own on-time rate at each. The airline is the same, so a gap is not about who flies, though the routes each flies from an airport still differ.
| Airline | ORD | MDW |
|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines · too close to call | 76.5%18,221 flights | 76.0%226,795 flights |
| SkyWest Airlines | 70.8%202,412 flights | 81.3% (best)5,124 flights |
| Delta Air Lines | 77.0%34,648 flights | 86.0% (best)4,599 flights |
| Frontier Airlines | 64.8%9,641 flights | 71.3% (best)9,406 flights |
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – August 2026 · Same test as above. A dash means the airline has fewer than 500 departures at that airport.
What these figures do not compare
Reasons two airports can differ that have nothing to do with how well either is run.
- Different airlines. United Airlines flies 30% of ORD’s departures; Southwest Airlines flies 92% of MDW’s departures. An airline brings its own schedule, aircraft and habits to an airport, so part of every gap above is a gap between carriers.
- Different destinations. 34% of ORD’s departures and 4% of MDW’s departures go to places no other airport here serves. An on-time arrival is counted at the far end, so weather and congestion at the destination are in the figure.
- Different trip lengths. The average route, weighted by flights, is 752 miles from ORD and 827 miles from MDW. Short regional hops and long coast-to-coast flights fail in different ways.
- Ground time belongs to the airport. Taxi-out and the share of flights that push back on time measure the airport itself. On-time arrival measures the whole trip.
- History, not a forecast. These are flights from July 2023 – August 2026. A storm cancels hundreds of flights together, so a clear gap is a statement about this sample, not a promise about your trip.
Analysis last recomputed
How the metro areas are chosen and what a lead means: how this works. All figures are from the methodology the airport pages use.
Other metro areas
- New York (LGA, EWR, JFK)
- Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW, DAL)
- Los Angeles (LAX, SNA, BUR, ONT)
- Washington (DCA, BWI, IAD)
- San Francisco (SFO, SJC, OAK)
- Miami (MIA, FLL)
- Houston (IAH, HOU)