ORD to DEC flight delays
Chicago, IL (ORD) Decatur, IL (DEC) · 156 miles
626 flights · January 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
69.45%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
3.99%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
89 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
28 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
The season swings this route hard. In October it ran 36 points more punctual than in April — 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: 3.99% 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 route has been getting worse. The later months run 12.4 points less punctual than the earlier ones. A drift of that size is rarely weather; it is more often an airline adding frequencies faster than the airports can absorb them.
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 ORD to DEC. Flights ran closest to schedule in October and worst in April.
Every airline on ORD to DEC
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 | 626 | 69.45% | 3.99% | 89 min | F |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
The return leg
DEC to ORD Decatur back to Chicago 67.68% on time FOther routes from Chicago
Common questions
Are flights from Chicago to Decatur usually delayed?
69.45% of flights on the ORD to DEC 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 Decatur?
Only SkyWest Airlines appears in the published record on this route, with 626 flights and 69.45% arriving on time.
How often are ORD to DEC flights cancelled?
3.99% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 40 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 Decatur?
October, when 87% of flights arrived on time. The worst was April at 51%.
When ORD to DEC flights are late, how late are they?
About 89 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 DEC 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 →