Route profile
DAL→ORD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Dallas to Chicago, 798 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
July 2023 – June 2026
Better than 59% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 3,038 flights. How this is calculated
DAL → ORD arrives on time 79.1% of the time; the return trip, ORD → DAL, arrives on time 77.6% of the time.
DAL → ORD spends 27.4 minutes on the ground on a 798-mile trip: 13.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at DAL and 14.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at ORD.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – June 2026
What stands out
Reliability here swings unusually widely by season, a wider month-to-month spread than 100% of 3,357 comparable routes.
93.8% on time in a typical February, against 61.1% in May.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – June 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 3,357 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where DAL to ORD differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – June 2026.
DAL to ORD struggles most at 12 PM: 72.6% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 7.6 points behind the 80.2% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.8 points.
DAL to ORD is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 9 AM: 90.6% arrive on time, 5.8 points ahead of the 84.8% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 6.3 points.
DAL to ORD holds up on Mondays better than routes of similar length do: 83.2% on time to their 77.1%, a 6.1 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 6 points.
In May, DAL to ORD runs 12.8 points below routes of similar length, 61.1% on time to 73.9%. Against all other routes the gap is 14.2 points.
February is kinder to DAL to ORD than to routes of similar length: 93.8% on time against 82.4%, 11.4 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 12.4 points.
DAL to ORD against comparable routes
July 2023 – June 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 12 PM departures | 72.6% | routes of similar length | 80.2% | −7.6 pts | 585 here, 128,653 there |
| Hour: 9 AM departures | 90.6% | routes of similar length | 84.8% | +5.8 pts | 330 here, 118,106 there |
| Weekday: Monday | 83.2% | routes of similar length | 77.1% | +6.1 pts | 463 here, 324,306 there |
| Month: May | 61.1% | routes of similar length | 73.9% | −12.8 pts | 229 here, 184,774 there |
| Month: February | 93.8% | routes of similar length | 82.4% | +11.4 pts | 195 here, 153,200 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 798 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.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – June 2026
41 min late
against a median of 6 min early
Percentiles over 3,038 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ORD after arriving from DAL.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 37% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 21% | High risk |
| 60 min | 13% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 6.5% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 3.6% | Low 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 1.18% of the time and diverts 0.26% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 2,994 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 41 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 3,038 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
DAL → ORD flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 90.8% of the time, against 66.3% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 24.5 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 94.4% on time from 274 flights
- 7 AM: too few flights to score
- 8 AM: 88.3% on time from 337 flights
- 9 AM: 90.6% on time from 334 flights
- 10 AM: 84.1% on time from 286 flights
- 11 AM: too few flights to score
- 12 PM: 72.6% on time from 594 flights
- 1 PM to 2 PM: too few flights to score
- 3 PM: 76.5% on time from 298 flights
- 4 PM to 5 PM: too few flights to score
- 6 PM: 70.5% on time from 238 flights
- 7 PM: 61.7% on time from 307 flights
- 8 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Why DAL → ORD runs late
July 2023 – June 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
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for DAL → ORD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on DAL → ORD, at 39.7%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 90.8% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 66.3%.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Southwest Airlines | 3,038 | 79.1% | 1.18% | -6 min | 6.7% |
Other ways to fly Dallas–Fort Worth to Chicago
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DFW→ORD Dallas–Fort Worth to Chicago | 20,478 | 72.9% | 2.02% | -3 min | 48 |
| DAL→ORD this route Dallas to Chicago | 3,038 | 79.1% | 1.18% | -6 min | 69 |
DAL → ORD is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 79.1% on time, against 72.9% for DFW → ORD.
Flying to ORD from the Dallas–Fort Worth area? Compare DAL, DFW for ORD, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Monday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 8.1 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 86.0%
- Feb: 93.8%
- Mar: 84.5%
- Apr: 75.2%
- May: 61.1%
- Jun: 66.9%
- Jul: 67.9%
- Aug: 73.5%
- Sep: 85.2%
- Oct: 84.2%
- Nov: 87.3%
- Dec: 82.5%
May is historically the weakest month and February the strongest, a spread of 32.7 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – June 2026
- July 2023: too few flights to score (119)
- August 2023: 74.6% from 135 flights
- September 2023: 83.2% from 144 flights
- October 2023: 88.7% from 151 flights
- November 2023: 84.4% from 142 flights
- December 2023: 82.1% from 147 flights
- January 2024: 79.6% from 120 flights
- February 2024: too few flights to score (104)
- March 2024: 85.7% from 126 flights
- April 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- May 2024: too few flights to score (116)
- June 2024: too few flights to score (87)
- July 2024: too few flights to score (89)
- August 2024: too few flights to score (85)
- September 2024: too few flights to score (81)
- October 2024: too few flights to score (85)
- November 2024: too few flights to score (84)
- December 2024: too few flights to score (88)
- January 2025: too few flights to score (72)
- February 2025: too few flights to score (63)
- March 2025: too few flights to score (85)
- April 2025: too few flights to score (86)
- May 2025: too few flights to score (88)
- June 2025: too few flights to score (86)
- July 2025: too few flights to score (89)
- August 2025: too few flights to score (76)
- September 2025: too few flights to score (73)
- October 2025: too few flights to score (87)
- November 2025: too few flights to score (29)
- December 2025: too few flights to score (31)
- January 2026: too few flights to score (31)
- February 2026: too few flights to score (28)
- March 2026: too few flights to score (31)
- April 2026: too few flights to score (30)
- May 2026: too few flights to score (31)
- June 2026: too few flights to score (3)
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-07 to 2026-06), on-time arrivals averaged 72.7% against 82.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 9.4 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 3,038 DAL → ORD flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering July 2023 – June 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