ORD to CAE flight delays
Chicago, IL (ORD) Columbia, SC (CAE) · 666 miles
452 flights · January 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
68.58%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
3.32%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
66 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
22 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
The season swings this route hard. In September it ran 31.7 points more punctual than in December — 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.
Cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth pricing here: 3.32% 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. CAE to ORD arrives on time 7.5 points more 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.
Flights from Chicago to Columbia run late more often than the average route, though not severely.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over January 2025 – August 2026, SkyWest Airlines arrived on time most often on ORD to CAE. Flights ran closest to schedule in September and worst in April.
Every airline on ORD to CAE
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 | 66.3% | 2.7% | 67 min | F |
| Envoy Air | 82 | 79.22% | 6.1% | 55 min | — |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
The return leg
CAE to ORD Columbia back to Chicago 76.1% on time DOther routes from Chicago
Common questions
Are flights from Chicago to Columbia usually delayed?
68.58% of flights on the ORD to CAE route arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, so roughly 3 in every ten arrived late. That is worse than the average route in this record.
Which airlines fly from Chicago to Columbia?
Only SkyWest Airlines appears in the published record on this route, with 370 flights and 66.3% arriving on time.
How often are ORD to CAE flights cancelled?
3.32% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 33 in every thousand. That is high enough that cancellation, not delay, is the risk worth planning around.
What is the best month to fly Chicago to Columbia?
September, when 86.2% of flights arrived on time. The worst was December at 54.5%.
When ORD to CAE flights are late, how late are they?
About 66 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 ORD to CAE 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 →