ORD to MEM flight delays
Chicago, IL (ORD) Memphis, TN (MEM) · 491 miles
2,468 flights · January 2025 – August 2026 · US Bureau of Transportation Statistics
72.8%
Arrived on time
Within 15 minutes of schedule
3.04%
Cancelled
Share of scheduled flights
66 min
When late, late by
Average across delayed arrivals
19 min
Delay per flight
Averaged over every flight flown
What the record says about this route
Which airline you fly changes the odds here. Envoy Air arrived on time 13.2 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: 3.04% 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 27.4 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.
Flights from Chicago to Memphis run late more often than the average route, though not severely.
Which airline should you fly on this route?
Over January 2025 – August 2026, Envoy Air arrived on time most often on ORD to MEM. United Airlines was late most often. Flights ran closest to schedule in September and worst in December.
Every airline on ORD to MEM
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 | 832 | 71.85% | 1.44% | 67 min | D |
| Envoy Air | 822 | 78.64% | 3.16% | 55 min | D |
| Republic Airways | 465 | 70.68% | 5.38% | 74 min | F |
| United Airlines | 333 | 65.42% | 3.6% | 71 min | F |
| American Airlines | 16 | 37.5% | 0% | 66 min | — |
Month by month
Share of flights that arrived within 15 minutes of schedule, by month flown.
The return leg
MEM to ORD Memphis back to Chicago 75.96% on time DOther routes from Chicago
Common questions
Are flights from Chicago to Memphis usually delayed?
72.8% of flights on the ORD to MEM 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 airline is most on time from Chicago to Memphis?
Envoy Air, at 78.64% on time across 822 flights. The least punctual on the route was United Airlines at 65.42%.
How often are ORD to MEM flights cancelled?
3.04% of scheduled flights did not operate — about 30 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 Memphis?
September, when 87.6% of flights arrived on time. The worst was December at 60.2%.
When ORD to MEM 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 MEM 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 →