Route profile
SJC→ORD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from San Jose to Chicago, 1,829 miles.
Right now
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Aviation weather is not currently a factor.
Route reliability
September 2023 – July 2026
Better than 96% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 1,021 flights. How this is calculated
SJC → ORD arrives on time 92.4% of the time; the return trip, ORD → SJC, arrives on time 71.2% of the time, a 21.2-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SJC → ORD spends 29.6 minutes on the ground on a 1,829-mile trip: 15.6 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SJC and 14.0 minutes from touchdown to gate at ORD.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering September 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
This route stays close to typical even on its worst days, a smaller gap than 99% of 4,598 comparable routes.
A typical arrival is 11 min early, and the worst tenth are only 22 minutes worse than that.
Source: FlyerIntel analysis of US DOT BTS data · September 2023 – July 2026 · Ranked against every other route with the same kind of figure and at least 4,598 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SJC to ORD differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, September 2023 – July 2026.
SJC to ORD is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 6 AM: 92.8% arrive on time, 3.5 points ahead of the 89.3% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 2 points.
SJC to ORD holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 94.3% on time to their 75.3%, a 19 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 19.5 points.
United Airlines does better on SJC to ORD than on its routes of similar length: 92.4% on time here, 80.3% there, 12.1 points apart. Against all other routes the gap is 12.5 points.
SJC to ORD against comparable routes
September 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 6 AM departures | 92.8% | routes of similar length | 89.3% | +3.5 pts | 875 here, 74,675 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 94.3% | routes of similar length | 75.3% | +19.0 pts | 141 here, 179,454 there |
| Airline: United Airlines | 92.4% | routes of similar length | 80.3% | +12.1 pts | 997 here, 255,088 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 1,829 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
September 2023 – July 2026
11 min late
against a median of 11 min early
Percentiles over 1,021 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ORD after arriving from SJC.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 22% | High risk |
| 45 min | 7.0% | Some risk |
| 60 min | 3.4% | Low risk |
| 90 min | 2.1% | Low risk |
| 120 min | 1.5% | 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 0.98% of the time and diverts 0.59% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 1,005 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 11 minutes late (90th-percentile gate arrival delay), over 1,021 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Why SJC → ORD runs late
September 2023 – July 2026
crew, maintenance, boarding and fueling, all within the carrier’s control
the inbound aircraft was late, so this flight started late
airspace and airport capacity, including weather-driven flow control
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SJC → ORD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed.
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 | 1,013 | 92.4% | 0.99% | -11 min | 2.1% |
Other ways to fly San Francisco to Chicago
Airport pairs in the same two city markets, as the DOT defines them.
| Route | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Median delay | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SFO→ORD San Francisco to Chicago | 16,120 | 78.7% | 1.12% | -7 min | 66 |
| SJC→ORD this route San Jose to Chicago | 1,021 | 92.4% | 0.98% | -11 min | 87 |
SJC → ORD is the most reliable pairing for this journey at 92.4% on time, against 78.7% for SFO → ORD.
Flying to ORD from the San Francisco area? Compare SJC, SFO, OAK for ORD, with the same test for what counts as a real difference.
Weekly and seasonal patterns
By day of week
Sunday is historically the most reliable day and Tuesday the least, a gap of 4.5 percentage points.
Reliability over time
September 2023 – July 2026
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 91.2% against 93.1% in the 12 months before — declining by 1.9 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 1,021 SJC → ORD flight records from the US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics, covering September 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