Route profile
AUS→ORD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Austin to Chicago, 977 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – July 2026
Better than 37% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,625 flights. How this is calculated
AUS → ORD arrives on time 77.9% of the time; the return trip, ORD → AUS, arrives on time 74.2% of the time, a 3.7-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
AUS → ORD spends 32.9 minutes on the ground on a 977-mile trip: 15.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at AUS and 17.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at ORD.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What sets this route apart
Where AUS to ORD differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
AUS to ORD struggles most at 6 PM: 55.0% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 12.7 points behind the 67.7% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 13.6 points.
AUS to ORD is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 1 PM: 79.4% arrive on time, 3.4 points ahead of the 76.0% those routes manage at that hour.
AUS to ORD holds up on Saturdays better than routes of similar length do: 81.2% on time to their 77.6%, a 3.6 points lead.
February is kinder to AUS to ORD than to routes of similar length: 86.1% on time against 80.8%, 5.3 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 4.7 points.
In April, AUS to ORD runs 3.7 points below routes of similar length, 75.8% on time to 79.5%. Against all other routes the gap is 4.1 points.
AUS to ORD against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 PM departures | 55.0% | routes of similar length | 67.7% | −12.7 pts | 416 here, 196,698 there |
| Hour: 1 PM departures | 79.4% | routes of similar length | 76.0% | +3.4 pts | 887 here, 181,433 there |
| Weekday: Saturday | 81.2% | routes of similar length | 77.6% | +3.6 pts | 1,121 here, 414,323 there |
| Month: February | 86.1% | routes of similar length | 80.8% | +5.3 pts | 610 here, 230,113 there |
| Month: April | 75.8% | routes of similar length | 79.5% | −3.7 pts | 807 here, 261,226 there |
Each comparison pools the flights of other routes, with this route’s own left out. Similar length means within 15% of this route’s 977 miles, with at least 5 such routes. A bucket is set against the most comparable group that has enough flights: similar length, then the same origin (at least 3 routes), then all other routes. Hours, weekdays and months appear only where both sides have 120 completed flights, and airlines where both have 600. The gap must be at least 2 points and 2 standard errors, and only the largest gap each way is kept per measure. These are differences in the flights counted, not causes.
Why AUS → ORD flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
AUS → ORD cancelled 115 of 9,625 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 84. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 64.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 130 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 115 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
74 cancellations, 64.3% of the total.
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
30 cancellations, 26.1% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
11 cancellations, 9.6% of the total.
A terminal evacuation, a security breach, screening equipment failure, or screening queues over 29 minutes.
0 cancellations, 0.0% of the total.
Reason codes are the operating airline’s own filing with US DOT, not an independent finding of fault. Ordinary bad weather is filed under air traffic, so weather’s full share is larger than its bar.
115 coded cancellations were recorded on AUS → ORD; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
49 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 9,625 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ORD after arriving from AUS.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 37% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.3% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.6% | Some risk |
This is one leg of a connection. Gate changes and the next flight's own schedule matter too. And a connection can fail before delay is even the question — this route cancels 1.19% of the time and diverts 0.43% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,469 arrivals on this route that landed later than the connection time less 30 minutes to reach the next gate.
The worst tenth of arrivals on this route land at least 49 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 9,625 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
AUS → ORD flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.1% of the time, against 59.0% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 28.1 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 86.0% on time from 1,262 flights
- 7 AM: 88.7% on time from 876 flights
- 8 AM: 87.3% on time from 1,020 flights
- 9 AM: 86.9% on time from 513 flights
- 10 AM: 84.0% on time from 672 flights
- 11 AM: 72.5% on time from 256 flights
- 12 PM: 81.0% on time from 698 flights
- 1 PM: 79.4% on time from 898 flights
- 2 PM: 76.8% on time from 477 flights
- 3 PM: 63.3% on time from 724 flights
- 4 PM: 58.3% on time from 542 flights
- 5 PM: 70.8% on time from 1,095 flights
- 6 PM: 55.0% on time from 433 flights
- 7 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why AUS → ORD runs late
July 2023 – July 2026
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
screening or terminal security incidents
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for AUS → ORD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on AUS → ORD, at 44.2%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 87.1% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 59.0%.
Airlines on this route
Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.
| Carrier | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Severe |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Airlines | 4,151 | 81.1% | 0.79% | -7 min | 6.9% |
| American Airlines | 3,403 | 76.2% | 1.67% | -7 min | 10.5% |
| Southwest Airlines | 1,121 | 72.7% | 0.62% | -1 min | 7.9% |
| Envoy Air | 623 | 78.7% | 0.80% | -7 min | 6.5% |
United Airlines flew 44.6% of the 9,298 flights listed. American Airlines cancelled 1.67% of its flights here against 0.62% for Southwest Airlines.
United Airlines arrived on time 8.4 percentage points more often than Southwest Airlines on this route.
Flights on this route
Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Saturday is historically the most reliable day and Sunday the least, a gap of 6.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 77.7%
- Feb: 86.1%
- Mar: 77.6%
- Apr: 75.8%
- May: 74.0%
- Jun: 73.0%
- Jul: 70.6%
- Aug: 78.9%
- Sep: 82.2%
- Oct: 80.8%
- Nov: 81.2%
- Dec: 80.7%
July is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 15.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 76.6% from 280 flights
- August 2023: 83.2% from 298 flights
- September 2023: 81.2% from 282 flights
- October 2023: 81.4% from 306 flights
- November 2023: 86.7% from 274 flights
- December 2023: 85.9% from 269 flights
- January 2024: 78.0% from 227 flights
- February 2024: 94.6% from 205 flights
- March 2024: 87.6% from 250 flights
- April 2024: 73.8% from 263 flights
- May 2024: 66.2% from 277 flights
- June 2024: 76.1% from 260 flights
- July 2024: 64.6% from 262 flights
- August 2024: 78.1% from 266 flights
- September 2024: 88.1% from 252 flights
- October 2024: 90.3% from 267 flights
- November 2024: 86.5% from 237 flights
- December 2024: 82.9% from 235 flights
- January 2025: 83.0% from 204 flights
- February 2025: 84.9% from 194 flights
- March 2025: 82.1% from 264 flights
- April 2025: 84.4% from 265 flights
- May 2025: 76.4% from 277 flights
- June 2025: 74.7% from 272 flights
- July 2025: 66.7% from 268 flights
- August 2025: 74.8% from 266 flights
- September 2025: 77.4% from 258 flights
- October 2025: 71.7% from 298 flights
- November 2025: 70.0% from 254 flights
- December 2025: 72.6% from 238 flights
- January 2026: 71.8% from 207 flights
- February 2026: 79.0% from 214 flights
- March 2026: 64.5% from 302 flights
- April 2026: 69.8% from 294 flights
- May 2026: 79.1% from 298 flights
- June 2026: 68.3% from 269 flights
- July 2026: 74.3% from 273 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 72.6% against 81.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 8.7 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,625 AUS → ORD flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – July 2026. Late means 15 or more minutes past scheduled arrival; cancelled and diverted flights are left out of on-time rates.
Full methodology · Data sources · Report a problem
Related research: How Long a Layover Needs to Be · Two Airlines on One Route · Best Time of Day to Fly From Major US Airports
Analysis last recomputed