CAE to ORD flight delays
Columbia, SC (CAE) Chicago, IL (ORD) · 666 miles
451 flights · January 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
76.1%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
4.21%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
105 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
26 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth pricing here: 4.21% of scheduled flights never operated. A late flight still gets you there. A cancelled one leaves you rebooking, and on a route with few daily departures that can mean losing a day.
The season swings this route hard. In September it ran 26.4 points more punctual than in January — a difference bigger than the one between the best and worst airlines on most routes. If the date is flexible, it is worth more than the carrier.
The two directions do not behave alike. ORD to CAE arrives on time 7.5 points less often than the outbound. Delay accumulates through the flying day, so whichever direction is scheduled later tends to carry the worse record — which is an argument for booking the morning departure if the choice exists.
Only SkyWest Airlines flies this route in the published record, so there is no choice to weigh — the route's figures and the airline's are the same figures.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over January 2025 – August 2026, SkyWest Airlines arrived on time most often on CAE to ORD. Flights ran closest to schedule in September and worst in April.
Every airline on CAE to ORD
Ranked by how many flights each one operated. A carrier with fewer than 100 flights in the period is listed but not graded.
| Airline | Flights | On time | Cancelled | Avg delay | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SkyWest Airlines | 370 | 74.37% | 3.78% | 112 min | D |
| Envoy Air | 81 | 84.21% | 6.17% | 56 min | — |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
The return leg
ORD to CAE Chicago back to Columbia 68.58% on time FCommon questions
Are flights from Columbia to Chicago usually delayed?
76.1% of flights on the CAE to ORD route arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, so roughly 2 in every ten arrived late. That is about the same as the average route in this record.
Which airlines fly from Columbia to Chicago?
Only SkyWest Airlines appears in the published record on this route, with 370 flights and 74.37% arriving on time.
How often are CAE to ORD flights cancelled?
4.21% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 42 in every thousand. That is high enough that cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth planning around.
What is the best month to fly Columbia to Chicago?
September, when 89.7% of flights arrived on time. The worst was January at 63.3%.
When CAE to ORD flights are late, how late are they?
About 105 minutes on average across the flights that arrived more than 15 minutes behind schedule.
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on CAE to ORD during January 2025 – August 2026, as reported by the airlines to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics. "On time" is the federal definition: arriving at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled time.
A route's record is a description of the past, not a forecast. Weather, air traffic control and the aircraft's earlier flights that day drive most delays, and none of them are predictable from a historical rate. What the record does tell you is whether this route runs late more often than others, and which carrier on it has the better history — which is the part you can actually act on when you book.
Cancellations are counted separately from delays because they are a different problem for a traveller: a late flight still gets you there. How the grade is calculated →