IND → ORD Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · INDNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:54 UTC

Indianapolis airport profile →

Destination · ORDNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:51 UTC

Chicago airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

64/ 100Good

Better than 45% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 13,796 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

81.6%

11,019 of 13,498

Cancellation rate

2.08%

287 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-8 min

Average 6.1 min

Severe delays

7.0%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

79 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

13,796

5 carriers

IND → ORD arrives on time 81.6% of the time; the return trip, ORD → IND, arrives on time 79.1% of the time, a 2.6-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

IND → ORD spends 34.3 minutes on the ground on a 177-mile trip: 17.9 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at IND and 16.4 minutes from touchdown to gate at ORD.

Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026

What stands out

This route holds up about the same all year, a steadier seasonal pattern than 92% of 3,357 comparable routes.

86.5% on time in its best month (October) against 75.6% in its worst (July).

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 3,357 in the comparison.

Why IND → ORD flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

IND → ORD cancelled 287 of 13,796 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 48. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 69.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 69 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather69.3%

Air traffic17.4%

Airline13.2%

Security0.0%

Of 287 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 69

Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.

199 cancellations, 69.3% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 276

Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.

50 cancellations, 17.4% of the total.

The airline1 in 363

Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.

38 cancellations, 13.2% of the total.

Security—

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.

287 coded cancellations were recorded on IND → ORD; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

39 min late

against a median of 8 min early

Arrived an hour or more late7.0%

Typical delay when late79 min

Cancelled2.08%

Landed somewhere else0.08%

Percentiles over 13,796 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at ORD after arriving from IND.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, IND → ORD arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	33%	Likely to miss
45 min	18%	High risk
60 min	12%	Some risk
90 min	6.8%	Some risk
120 min	4.5%	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 2.08% of the time and diverts 0.08% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 13,498 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 39 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 13,796 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

IND → ORD flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 88.2% of the time, against 61.7% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 26.5 percentage points.

By day and hour

On-time arrival rate for each weekday and scheduled departure hour, in local time at the departure airport (IND).

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 9.2 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.2 points.

On-time arrival rate for IND to ORD by weekday and scheduled departure hour, local time. Each button reads out one slot.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM
7 AM–8 AM
8 AM–9 AM
9 AM–10 AM
10 AM–11 AM
11 AM–12 PM
12 PM–1 PM
1 PM–2 PM
2 PM–3 PM
3 PM–4 PM
4 PM–5 PM
5 PM–6 PM
6 PM–7 PM
7 PM–8 PM

On-time rate, % · stronger color, fewer on time

60–69
70–79
80–89
90–99

Fewer than 120 flights, not scored

Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · July 2023 – July 2026 · On time is arrival within 15 minutes of schedule. Cells round to whole percentages; the table shows one decimal.

No slot is named best or worst: too few reach 500 flights. Departures before 6 AM and after 8 PM (589 flights) are not drawn: no slot in those hours has enough flights to score.

View as tableHide table

On-time arrival rate (%) with flights beneath, by scheduled departure hour and weekday for IND to ORD. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	94.5% on time203 flights	92.7% on time194 flights	96.8% on time186 flights	91.5% on time202 flights	90.3% on time206 flights	92.7% on time192 flights	90.3% on time208 flights
7 AM–8 AM	82.3% on time249 flights	86.4% on time242 flights	88.8% on time236 flights	90.7% on time241 flights	83.3% on time244 flights	85.0% on time232 flights	87.0% on time233 flights
8 AM–9 AM	95 flights, too few to score	110 flights, too few to score	119 flights, too few to score	100 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score
9 AM–10 AM	84.8% on time169 flights	92.2% on time170 flights	91.0% on time168 flights	82.8% on time163 flights	81.6% on time166 flights	87.8% on time165 flights	87.4% on time169 flights
10 AM–11 AM	111 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score	112 flights, too few to score	116 flights, too few to score	97 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	92.7% on time196 flights	89.7% on time185 flights	92.0% on time189 flights	90.6% on time182 flights	89.5% on time193 flights	89.9% on time189 flights	88.2% on time190 flights
12 PM–1 PM	83.8% on time155 flights	85.0% on time183 flights	84.2% on time167 flights	82.2% on time159 flights	85.0% on time149 flights	119 flights, too few to score	77.1% on time146 flights
1 PM–2 PM	75.8% on time121 flights	114 flights, too few to score	82.1% on time125 flights	81.0% on time127 flights	71.2% on time120 flights	116 flights, too few to score	77.6% on time120 flights
2 PM–3 PM	47 flights, too few to score	49 flights, too few to score	46 flights, too few to score	48 flights, too few to score	52 flights, too few to score	52 flights, too few to score	49 flights, too few to score
3 PM–4 PM	82.8% on time133 flights	88.0% on time120 flights	81.0% on time122 flights	80.0% on time138 flights	75.0% on time131 flights	98 flights, too few to score	80.8% on time130 flights
4 PM–5 PM	73.9% on time165 flights	81.0% on time143 flights	76.3% on time162 flights	66.7% on time150 flights	74.7% on time165 flights	78.9% on time150 flights	72.7% on time163 flights
5 PM–6 PM	73 flights, too few to score	86 flights, too few to score	81 flights, too few to score	75 flights, too few to score	73 flights, too few to score	77 flights, too few to score	73 flights, too few to score
6 PM–7 PM	100 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score	113 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score	105 flights, too few to score	99 flights, too few to score	94 flights, too few to score
7 PM–8 PM	114 flights, too few to score	78 flights, too few to score	87 flights, too few to score	118 flights, too few to score	118 flights, too few to score	67 flights, too few to score	59.7% on time121 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM88.2%

9 AM–12 PM88.0%

12–3 PM81.3%

3–6 PM76.0%

6–9 PM61.7%

9 PM–5 AM—

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.

Why IND → ORD runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Air traffic control33.4%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Late-arriving aircraft32.6%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline23.9%

crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control

Weather10.2%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for IND → ORD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

The harder-hit end is ORD, where the flight lands. Its figure counts departures from ORD, so it says more about how that airport copes than about this route. Bad weather cancels 5.5 times the normal rate at ORD against 2.1 times at IND. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: IND 3.0% against 1.4%, ORD 6.5% against 1.2%. Flights that did leave ORD in bad weather arrived on time 55.7% of the time, against 77.1% in normal hours.

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

Scheduled departures, July 2023 – July 2026

Departures from IND and ORD in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	IND	ORD
Cancelled in bad weather	3.0%	6.5%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.4%	1.2%
Arrived on time, bad weather	73.4%	55.7%
Arrived on time, normal hours	83.1%	77.1%
Departures in bad weather	17,460	104,455

Republic Airways (4.3% cancelled against 2.6% for the other carriers at IND) and SkyWest Airlines (6.3% cancelled against 3.5% for the other carriers at IND) cancelled more departures from IND in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly better. One more carrier flies this route but has too few bad-weather departures from IND to compare.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at IND

All departures from IND

Cancellation rates in bad weather at IND for the airlines that fly IND to ORD, against the other carriers at IND in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
United Airlines	932	2.3%about level	2.9%
American Airlines	2,318	2.5%about level	3.0%
Republic Airways	5,041	4.3%above the others	2.6%
SkyWest Airlines	514	6.3%above the others	3.5%

These are airport figures, not route figures: every scheduled departure from IND and ORD, to any destination, in hours the weather report called bad. The airline rows count each carrier’s departures from IND on every route.

Weather source and limits. In full: IND (airlines), ORD, What Weather Costs Each Airport, Who Cancels More When the Weather Turns, Airports That Change Places When Weather Turns.

Airlines on this route

Carriers with at least 200 flights, by the airline that operated each one.

Airlines on this route
Carrier	Flights	On time	Cancelled	Median delay	Severe
Republic Airways	7,412	86.6%	1.42%	-10 min	4.4%
Envoy Air	1,807	81.2%	1.94%	-7 min	8.2%
SkyWest Airlines	1,764	75.5%	3.68%	-3 min	10.7%
American Airlines	1,567	75.1%	3.19%	-8 min	11.3%
United Airlines	1,245	69.2%	2.57%	2 min	9.8%

Republic Airways flew 53.7% of the 13,795 flights listed. SkyWest Airlines cancelled 3.68% of its flights here against 1.42% for Republic Airways.

Republic Airways arrived on time 17.4 percentage points more often than United Airlines on this route.

Flights on this route

Flight numbers with at least 600 operations here and still on the schedule.

Flights on this route
Flight	Scheduled	Operations	On time
YX3479 Republic Airways	6:00 AM	843	94.3%

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon81.9%

Tue83.4%

Wed84.7%

Thu80.1%

Fri77.9%

Sat83.4%

Sun80.4%

Wednesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 6.8 percentage points.

By month

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

July is historically the weakest month and October the strongest, a spread of 10.9 percentage points.

Reliability over time

July 2023 – July 2026

24

25

26

Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 77.1% against 84.3% in the 12 months before — declining by 7.2 percentage points.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 13,796 IND → 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

Analysis last recomputed September 26, 2026

IND airport ORD airport Return direction ORD → IND

IND→ORD

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why IND → ORD flights are cancelled

Share of cancellations

What each reason means

When it goes wrong

Will your connection be tight enough?

Best time to fly

By day and hour

By departure window

By departure hour

Why IND → ORD runs late

How this route holds up in bad weather

Bad weather and normal hours at the airports

This route’s airlines in bad weather at IND

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology