Route profile
SLC→ORD
Flight reliability, delays and best times to fly from Salt Lake City to Chicago, 1,250 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 40% of comparable major US routes (4,598 compared)
Calculated from 9,376 flights. How this is calculated · What counts as on time
SLC → ORD arrives on time 79.2% of the time; the return trip, ORD → SLC, arrives on time 74.9% of the time, a 4.3-point gap between the two directions of the same city pair.
SLC → ORD spends 36.4 minutes on the ground on a 1,250-mile trip: 18.1 minutes from pushback to wheels-up at SLC and 18.3 minutes from touchdown to gate at ORD.
Source: US DOT Bureau of Transportation Statistics · Data covering July 2023 – July 2026
What stands out
Every day of the week performs about the same on this route, steadier than 93% of 4,467 comparable routes.
82.0% on time on the best day (Tuesday) against 77.4% on the worst (Friday).
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 4,467 in the comparison.
What sets this route apart
Where SLC to ORD differs most from similar routes by hour, weekday, month and airline, July 2023 – July 2026.
SLC to ORD is at its best against routes of similar length for flights scheduled at 8 PM: 80.0% arrive on time, 15 points ahead of the 65.0% those routes manage at that hour. Against all other routes the gap is 12.6 points.
SLC to ORD struggles most at 2 PM: 67.1% of its flights scheduled then arrive on time, 5.7 points behind the 72.8% on routes of similar length at the same hour. Against all other routes the gap is 7.5 points.
SLC to ORD holds up on Sundays better than routes of similar length do: 78.2% on time to their 73.6%, a 4.6 points lead. Against all other routes the gap is 3.4 points.
September is kinder to SLC to ORD than to routes of similar length: 86.3% on time against 81.7%, 4.6 points better. Against all other routes the gap is 3.9 points.
SLC to ORD against comparable routes
July 2023 – July 2026| Measure | This route | Compared with | Them | Gap | Flights behind it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hour: 8 PM departures | 80.0% | routes of similar length | 65.0% | +15.0 pts | 130 here, 82,317 there |
| Hour: 2 PM departures | 67.1% | routes of similar length | 72.8% | −5.7 pts | 535 here, 111,362 there |
| Weekday: Sunday | 78.2% | routes of similar length | 73.6% | +4.6 pts | 1,339 here, 276,319 there |
| Month: September | 86.3% | routes of similar length | 81.7% | +4.6 pts | 722 here, 142,682 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 1,250 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 SLC → ORD flights are cancelled
July 2023 – July 2026
SLC → ORD cancelled 101 of 9,376 scheduled flights — about 1 in every 93. The reason filed most often was the airline, 48.5% of the cancellations coded on this route — about 1 in every 191 scheduled flights.
Share of cancellations
Of 101 cancelled departures carrying a reason code.
What each reason means
Crew, maintenance, aircraft cleaning, baggage or fueling: what BTS counts as within the carrier’s own control.
49 cancellations, 48.5% of the total.
Conditions the carrier judged severe enough to stop the flight: a blizzard, a hurricane, a line of thunderstorms.
45 cancellations, 44.6% of the total.
Airport capacity, air traffic control flow programs, heavy traffic and ordinary bad weather. A system decision, not the airline’s.
7 cancellations, 6.9% 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.
101 coded cancellations were recorded on SLC → ORD; the section appears from 50.
When it goes wrong
July 2023 – July 2026
49 min late
against a median of 7 min early
Percentiles over 9,376 operations; cancelled and diverted flights are counted separately.
Will your connection be tight enough?
Layovers at ORD after arriving from SLC.
| Connection time | Chance of missing | Reads as |
|---|---|---|
| 30 min | 35% | Likely to miss |
| 45 min | 20% | High risk |
| 60 min | 14% | Some risk |
| 90 min | 8.4% | Some risk |
| 120 min | 5.8% | 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 1.08% of the time and diverts 0.58% of the time, which a late arrival never shows up in.
Chance of missing is the share of 9,221 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 9,376 operations.
Any other layover length: connection checker.
Best time to fly
SLC → ORD flights departing 5–9 AM arrived on time 87.7% of the time, against 71.5% for 3–6 PM departures, a gap of 16.2 percentage points.
By departure window
By departure hour
- 12 AM to 5 AM: too few flights to score
- 6 AM: 88.4% on time from 655 flights
- 7 AM: 87.6% on time from 894 flights
- 8 AM: 87.2% on time from 1,681 flights
- 9 AM: 85.6% on time from 139 flights
- 10 AM: too few flights to score
- 11 AM: 83.2% on time from 192 flights
- 12 PM: 80.4% on time from 1,104 flights
- 1 PM: 73.9% on time from 1,497 flights
- 2 PM: 67.1% on time from 544 flights
- 3 PM: too few flights to score
- 4 PM: 70.9% on time from 994 flights
- 5 PM: 71.8% on time from 1,115 flights
- 6 PM to 7 PM: too few flights to score
- 8 PM: 80.0% on time from 135 flights
- 9 PM to 11 PM: too few flights to score
Departure windows with fewer than 120 flights are not scored.
Why SLC → ORD runs late
July 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
weather severe enough to stop this flight specifically
Share of the delay minutes US DOT attributed to each cause for SLC → ORD. Only delays of 15 minutes or more are attributed. What the five causes mean
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 3,125 | 79.8% | 0.77% | -7 min | 8.0% |
| United Airlines | 3,125 | 80.7% | 1.38% | -7 min | 7.0% |
| American Airlines | 1,774 | 74.6% | 1.24% | -7 min | 11.4% |
| SkyWest Airlines | 1,188 | 82.3% | 0.76% | -10 min | 8.8% |
Delta Air Lines flew 33.9% of the 9,212 flights listed.
SkyWest Airlines arrived on time 7.7 percentage points more often than American 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
Tuesday is historically the most reliable day and Friday the least, a gap of 4.6 percentage points.
By month
- Jan: 76.6%
- Feb: 82.9%
- Mar: 77.8%
- Apr: 80.2%
- May: 77.3%
- Jun: 75.5%
- Jul: 72.3%
- Aug: 77.6%
- Sep: 86.3%
- Oct: 85.1%
- Nov: 83.2%
- Dec: 78.9%
July is historically the weakest month and September the strongest, a spread of 14.0 percentage points.
Reliability over time
July 2023 – July 2026
- July 2023: 78.4% from 240 flights
- August 2023: 79.6% from 248 flights
- September 2023: 87.9% from 224 flights
- October 2023: 91.1% from 237 flights
- November 2023: 89.1% from 194 flights
- December 2023: 86.8% from 228 flights
- January 2024: 76.1% from 241 flights
- February 2024: 89.1% from 224 flights
- March 2024: 84.0% from 258 flights
- April 2024: 81.4% from 236 flights
- May 2024: 75.2% from 243 flights
- June 2024: 77.1% from 242 flights
- July 2024: 72.6% from 229 flights
- August 2024: 76.3% from 242 flights
- September 2024: 89.5% from 257 flights
- October 2024: 85.0% from 267 flights
- November 2024: 85.1% from 223 flights
- December 2024: 80.7% from 259 flights
- January 2025: 81.7% from 241 flights
- February 2025: 76.7% from 246 flights
- March 2025: 80.2% from 322 flights
- April 2025: 82.5% from 264 flights
- May 2025: 79.6% from 271 flights
- June 2025: 74.5% from 266 flights
- July 2025: 65.7% from 269 flights
- August 2025: 76.7% from 260 flights
- September 2025: 81.5% from 244 flights
- October 2025: 79.8% from 265 flights
- November 2025: 76.4% from 240 flights
- December 2025: 69.5% from 241 flights
- January 2026: 71.8% from 237 flights
- February 2026: 83.4% from 284 flights
- March 2026: 70.0% from 317 flights
- April 2026: 76.9% from 267 flights
- May 2026: 76.9% from 283 flights
- June 2026: 75.2% from 291 flights
- July 2026: 73.4% from 276 flights
Over the most recent 12 months (2025-08 to 2026-07), on-time arrivals averaged 75.9% against 79.7% in the 12 months before — declining by 3.8 percentage points.
Data and methodology
Calculated by FlyerIntel from 9,376 SLC → 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