ORD → PHL Flight Reliability

Right now

Origin · ORDNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:51 UTC

Chicago airport profile →

Destination · PHLNo disruption reported

Aviation weather is not currently a factor.

Updated 08:54 UTC

Philadelphia airport profile →

Route reliability

July 2023 – July 2026

Route Reliability Score

43/ 100Weak

Better than 7% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)

Calculated from 14,168 flights. How this is calculated

On-time arrivals

72.1%

9,991 of 13,854

Cancellation rate

2.05%

290 cancelled

Median arrival delay

-3 min

Average 18.8 min

Severe delays

11.7%

60+ minutes late

Delay when late

89 min

Average, when 15+ min late

Flights analyzed

14,168

3 carriers

ORD → PHL arrives on time 72.1% of the time; the return trip, PHL → ORD, arrives on time 77.2% of the time, a 5.1-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.

ORD → PHL spends 30.7 minutes on the ground on a 678-mile trip: 23.2 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at ORD and 7.5 minutes from touchdown to gate at PHL.

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

What stands out

This route's worst arrivals run unusually far past its typical one, a bigger gap than 93% of 4,598 comparable routes.

A typical arrival is 3 min early, but the worst tenth run 74 minutes worse than that.

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 4,598 in the comparison.

Why ORD → PHL flights are cancelled

July 2023 – July 2026

ORD → PHL cancelled 290 of 14,168 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 49. The reason filed most often was extreme weather, 79.3% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 62 scheduled flights.

Share of cancellations

Weather79.3%

Airline13.4%

Air traffic7.2%

Security0.0%

Of 290 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.

What each reason means

Extreme weather1 in 62

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

230 cancellations, 79.3% of the total.

The airline1 in 363

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

39 cancellations, 13.4% of the total.

The air traffic system1 in 675

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

21 cancellations, 7.2% 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.

290 coded cancellations were recorded on ORD → PHL; the section appears from 50.

When it goes wrong

July 2023 – July 2026

One arrival in ten is worse than

71 min late

against a median of 3 min early

Arrived an hour or more late11.7%

Typical delay when late89 min

Cancelled2.05%

Landed somewhere else0.17%

ORD → PHL has an average that understates its risk: a typical arrival is 3 min early, but the worst tenth are 74 minutes worse than that. If the trip has something unmissable at the end of it, the median is the wrong number to plan against.

Percentiles over 14,168 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.

Will your connection be tight enough?

Layovers at PHL after arriving from ORD.

Connection buffer and chance of missing by layover length, ORD → PHL arrivals
Connection time	Chance of missing	Reads as
30 min	44%	Likely to miss
45 min	27%	High risk
60 min	19%	High risk
90 min	12%	Some risk
120 min	7.6%	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 2.05% of the time and diverts 0.17% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.

Chance of missing is the share of 13,854 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 71 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 14,168 operations.

Any other layover length: connection checker.

Best time to fly

ORD → PHL flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 84.3% of the time, against 62.6% for 6–9 PM departures, a gap of 21.7 percentage points.

By day and hour

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

Hour of departure matters more than day of the week: hourly averages sit a typical 9.4 points from the route-wide rate, weekday averages 2.5 points.

On-time arrival rate for ORD to PHL 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
8 PM–9 PM
9 PM–10 PM

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

55–59
60–64
65–69
70–74
75–79
80–84
85–89

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 10 PM (539 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 ORD to PHL. A dash means fewer than 120 flights, which are not scored.
Hour	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
6 AM–7 AM	80.1% on time159 flights	84.2% on time142 flights	88.1% on time146 flights	86.4% on time150 flights	82.8% on time160 flights	84.3% on time123 flights	87.3% on time145 flights
7 AM–8 AM	86.4% on time156 flights	89.5% on time155 flights	89.5% on time153 flights	87.3% on time157 flights	86.2% on time154 flights	101 flights, too few to score	89.0% on time137 flights
8 AM–9 AM	77.3% on time154 flights	88.8% on time140 flights	77.5% on time142 flights	84.7% on time152 flights	72.6% on time158 flights	79.1% on time136 flights	77.7% on time153 flights
9 AM–10 AM	75.6% on time136 flights	79.7% on time142 flights	82.1% on time141 flights	80.3% on time144 flights	79.6% on time138 flights	98 flights, too few to score	72.5% on time141 flights
10 AM–11 AM	20 flights, too few to score	19 flights, too few to score	19 flights, too few to score	13 flights, too few to score	15 flights, too few to score	24 flights, too few to score	16 flights, too few to score
11 AM–12 PM	73.7% on time270 flights	82.6% on time266 flights	79.8% on time264 flights	79.6% on time269 flights	70.8% on time273 flights	76.2% on time262 flights	75.3% on time271 flights
12 PM–1 PM	13 flights, too few to score	24 flights, too few to score	25 flights, too few to score	10 flights, too few to score	12 flights, too few to score	9 flights, too few to score	9 flights, too few to score
1 PM–2 PM	33 flights, too few to score	36 flights, too few to score	38 flights, too few to score	36 flights, too few to score	36 flights, too few to score	44 flights, too few to score	38 flights, too few to score
2 PM–3 PM	67.0% on time299 flights	68.8% on time290 flights	65.3% on time293 flights	58.5% on time290 flights	60.2% on time296 flights	76.0% on time245 flights	58.3% on time291 flights
3 PM–4 PM	40 flights, too few to score	39 flights, too few to score	41 flights, too few to score	38 flights, too few to score	38 flights, too few to score	17 flights, too few to score	38 flights, too few to score
4 PM–5 PM	117 flights, too few to score	105 flights, too few to score	102 flights, too few to score	60.8% on time122 flights	114 flights, too few to score	95 flights, too few to score	114 flights, too few to score
5 PM–6 PM	85 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score	90 flights, too few to score	87 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score	91 flights, too few to score
6 PM–7 PM	63.9% on time264 flights	68.0% on time251 flights	66.3% on time251 flights	62.3% on time261 flights	61.5% on time266 flights	70.6% on time240 flights	65.6% on time267 flights
7 PM–8 PM	51 flights, too few to score	48 flights, too few to score	50 flights, too few to score	49 flights, too few to score	52 flights, too few to score	57 flights, too few to score	46 flights, too few to score
8 PM–9 PM	98 flights, too few to score	77 flights, too few to score	73 flights, too few to score	84 flights, too few to score	101 flights, too few to score	70 flights, too few to score	96 flights, too few to score
9 PM–10 PM	62.6% on time141 flights	102 flights, too few to score	104 flights, too few to score	63.0% on time145 flights	66.4% on time139 flights	70 flights, too few to score	68.6% on time144 flights

By departure window

5–9 AM84.3%

9 AM–12 PM77.3%

12–3 PM65.8%

3–6 PM64.7%

6–9 PM62.6%

9 PM–5 AM64.5%

By departure hour

12 AM

3 AM

6 AM

9 AM

12 PM

3 PM

6 PM

9 PM

Why ORD → PHL runs late

July 2023 – July 2026

Late-arriving aircraft47.1%

the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late

The airline30.4%

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

Air traffic control17.4%

airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control

Weather5.0%

weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically

Security<0.1%

screening or terminal security incidents

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

Late-arriving aircraft is the largest cause on ORD → PHL, at 47.1%: flights here mostly leave late because the plane came in late, and the day shows it: 5–9 AM departures arrived on time 84.3% of the time and 6–9 PM departures 62.6%.

How this route holds up in bad weather

July 2023 – July 2026

Bad weather raises cancellations by a similar amount at both ends of ORD to PHL: 5.5 times the normal rate at ORD and 4.3 times at PHL. Cancelled in bad weather against normal hours: ORD 6.5% against 1.2%, PHL 6.5% against 1.5%. 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 ORD and PHL in hours of bad weather and in normal hours
Departures from	ORD	PHL
Cancelled in bad weather	6.5%	6.5%
Cancelled in normal hours	1.2%	1.5%
Arrived on time, bad weather	55.7%	64.3%
Arrived on time, normal hours	77.1%	78.2%
Departures in bad weather	104,455	32,038

United Airlines (3.5% cancelled against 7.4% for the other carriers at ORD) and American Airlines (5.4% cancelled against 6.7% for the other carriers at ORD) cancelled fewer departures from ORD in bad weather than the other carriers there did in the same months. None of the route’s other carriers was clearly worse.

This route’s airlines in bad weather at ORD

All departures from ORD

Cancellation rates in bad weather at ORD for the airlines that fly ORD to PHL, against the other carriers at ORD in the same months
Airline	Bad-weather departures	Cancelled	Other carriers
United Airlines	31,269	3.5%below the others	7.4%
Frontier Airlines	1,047	6.0%about level	7.5%
American Airlines	17,789	5.4%below the others	6.7%

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

Weather source and limits. In full: ORD (airlines), PHL, 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
American Airlines	8,522	71.4%	2.64%	-2 min	12.3%
United Airlines	5,170	74.2%	0.97%	-4 min	9.7%
Frontier Airlines	432	59.5%	3.47%	5 min	23.5%

American Airlines flew 60.3% of the 14,124 flights listed. Frontier Airlines cancelled 3.47% of its flights here against 0.97% for United Airlines.

United Airlines arrived on time 14.7 percentage points more often than Frontier 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
UA1776 United Airlines	6:20 PM	930	64.7%

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

Mon70.3%

Tue75.8%

Wed74.0%

Thu70.4%

Fri69.6%

Sat75.5%

Sun70.0%

Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 6.2 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 20.5 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 71.8% against 72.4% in the 12 months before — broadly unchanged.

Data and methodology

Calculated by FlyerIntel from 14,168 ORD → PHL 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

ORD airport PHL airport Return direction PHL → ORD

ORD→PHL

Right now

Route reliability

What stands out

Why ORD → PHL 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 ORD → PHL 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 ORD

Airlines on this route

Flights on this route

Weekly and seasonal patterns

By day of week

By month

Reliability over time

Data and methodology