ORD to MBS flight delays
Chicago, IL (ORD) Saginaw/Bay City/Midland, MI (MBS) · 222 miles
1,036 flights · January 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
65.3%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
3.19%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
87 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
31 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 30.9 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: 3.19% 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 9.7 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.
This is a late route. Flights from Chicago to Saginaw/Bay City/Midland miss their scheduled arrival often enough that a tight connection at the far end is a connection at risk.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over January 2025 – August 2026, SkyWest Airlines arrived on time most often on ORD to MBS. Flights ran closest to schedule in September and worst in April.
Every airline on ORD to MBS
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 | 1,036 | 65.3% | 3.19% | 87 min | F |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
Other routes from Chicago
Common questions
Are flights from Chicago to Saginaw/Bay City/Midland usually delayed?
65.3% of flights on the ORD to MBS 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 Saginaw/Bay City/Midland?
Only SkyWest Airlines appears in the published record on this route, with 1,036 flights and 65.3% arriving on time.
How often are ORD to MBS flights cancelled?
3.19% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 32 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 Saginaw/Bay City/Midland?
September, when 79.8% of flights arrived on time. The worst was April at 48.9%.
When ORD to MBS flights are late, how late are they?
About 87 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 MBS 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 →