ORD to ATL flight delays
Chicago, IL (ORD) Atlanta, GA (ATL) · 606 miles
583 flights · March 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
76.9%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
2.57%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
98 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
24 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Which airline you fly changes the odds here. Delta Air Lines arrived on time 11.4 points more often than United Airlines over the same period on the same route — same airports, same weather, same air traffic control. A gap that survives all of that is about how the two airlines are run.
Cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth pricing here: 2.57% 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 two directions do not behave alike. ATL to ORD arrives on time 8.5 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.
This is a thin route — 583 flights across the whole period. On a route this infrequent a cancellation is far more costly than the rate suggests, because the next departure may not be the same day.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over March 2025 – August 2026, Delta Air Lines arrived on time most often on ORD to ATL. United Airlines was late most often.
Every airline on ORD to ATL
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Delta Air Lines | 232 | 86.67% | 3.02% | 109 min | B |
| United Airlines | 173 | 75.29% | 1.73% | 90 min | C |
| American Airlines | 90 | 61.63% | 4.44% | 98 min | — |
| Frontier Airlines | 60 | 68.33% | 0% | 109 min | — |
| Republic Airways | 28 | 73.08% | 3.57% | 70 min | — |
The return leg
ATL to ORD Atlanta back to Chicago 68.44% on time DOther routes from Chicago
What these figures do and do not tell you
Everything on this page is counted from the flights that actually operated on ORD to ATL during March 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 →